Reverse

This one will be called Reverse for a few reasons: the guy asked me out, he kissed me before he asked me out, we didn’t know each other’s names until about 30 minutes into the first date, oh, and he was drunk on the date.  Let the games begin!

I went dancing the other night, and I stayed after my friends went home.  When they said goodbye, there were three guys standing by me.  While I had a plan of asking someone out that night, these guys were not in the plan.  Who am I to stick with a plan, though?  I decided I needed to teach these guys to twirl; the next thing I know Reverse and I were dancing, and then he kissed me.  It was a sweet kiss, so until he and his friends left we continued to dance and kiss.  Reverse was being adorably precious saying things like, “Can you stop being so pretty?  I can’t handle it” and “I just can’t stop kissing you.” What girl doesn’t want to hear those things?  Before he left he said he wanted to get my number and take me out for dinner.  I asked him if he wanted a name to go with that number, and he just laughed which resulted in us not getting each other’s names.  Now while this isn’t a necessary part of the story, I feel the need to add that in addition to his messy, curly hair, skinny black jeans, black sneakers, and flannel shirt, Reverse was also wearing a shiny, purple Lakers jacket.  Fantastic.

The next morning he texted me, Hey. Soooo we had some epic kisses at the bar last night.   I was honestly pretty stoked and wondered if you wanted to grab dinner and drinks soon.  I appreciated his gumption, so I told him I was free after work that night and plans were made.  Reverse showed up early to the salon and waited patiently while I finished, and then as we left he held his arm out for me to hold on to while we walked.  We went to a sushi place nearby, and when we first sat down I thought he was a little nervous; however, five minutes later I decided he was drunk.  To add to his intoxication he ordered some beer and sake.  Side note: I’m not much of a drinker, but I don’t mind when others drink.  On the other hand, even though I met you at a bar where you were drinking, I would prefer that you not be drunk at the beginning of our first date.  I’m complex, I know. 

In the midst of his being a little sloppy and loud, he was still completely sweet. Halfway through dinner I decided we should finally exchange names, which was just comical because he acted like it was no big deal that we hadn’t already shared that information.  To prove his name to me, he showed me his ID, at which point I also learned that he was ten years younger than I am – oops. At one point his phone kept ringing, so he apologized and said he had to get it because it was his roommate's girlfriend who needed in the apartment.  His side of the conversation went like this, "No, I'm not there; I'm on my date right now.  I think it's going really well."  How precious. After sushi we walked around the neighborhood for a bit, and he stopped a couple of times to kiss me on the cheek (he may have also stumbled a few times).  In the end he invited me to his place where he assured me his roommates were home "so things aren't going to get too nar-nar."  Throughout the date, I kind of felt like I was on candid camera, so while I thought I should probably just go home, instead I decided I needed to go with him to see how the night would end.  Therefore, I said yes and assured him, "That's okay, things weren't going to get nar-nar."  For the record, I have no idea what "nar-nar" means, but based on context clues I decided that was the correct response.  A few people were at his place, and we said hi before going into the other room (where there was a bed, couch, and futon – I’m pretty sure at least five people lived in this two bedroom place).  I definitely felt like I was in a fraternity house, especially when I saw the beer cans on the edge of the bathtub.  Another irrelevant, yet entertaining, point is that there was only one set of keys between all of the roommates, so as we were walking to the building he had to call one of the people to throw the keys out the window for him.  Seriously.  Reverse had some more beer, and we listened to music.  We also kissed a lot.  When I left, I just laughed to myself about the whole evening – I went on a date with a 23-year old, who in spite of being drunk, was extremely chivalrous and a good kisser.

The next day I realized I hadn’t actually thanked him for dinner, so I sent him a text saying as much.  He replied, You’re welcome.  A better thank you, though, would be you saying you would like to go out again.  Well I’m not sure if I can argue with that sweetness.  I know I should just write him off, but I kind of want to give him another chance.

Following up with Twenty-one

My friend gave me Twenty-one’s email address, so I sent him an official correspondence with the subject of date or no date.

The moments after that question were possibly the best entertainment of the evening; I hope that you are no longer in shock.  I’m actually going to be out of town for a few days, but I really would like to meet up with you when I get back if you’re up for it.  In the meantime, you can get to know me with this quick preview of things I like: bright colors, sneakers, unicorns, chocolate, books, dancing, my niece, karaoke, sarcasm, and airplanes.

The next day I got this response:

Thanks for getting in touch and yes, thank you for that out of the blue moment during our innocent game of would you rather.  That was unexpected.  You seem cool and like someone I’d like to get to know…right now though I am trying to get it off the ground with someone else, so I’m gonna see where that leads before I book anything else.  Can we be in touch in a few weeks and see where we are?

Not a no, not a yes.  It’s like waiting at the DMV; I’m just killing time and hoping that someone will call my number.  

Twenty-one

For my friend’s birthday, a group of people got together to help her celebrate with a night on the town.  Since it was her birthday I told Ann she should choose someone for me to ask out, so she introduced me to Twenty-one.  I decided we should have a round of rapid-fire Q&A time, and I began with “vanilla wafers or thin mints.”  We carried on with this for a few minutes, and then he declared we each got one more.  He put a lot of thought into his final question, “south pole or north pole,” and right before it was time for my last one a couple of our friends walked up and started chatting with us. 

After a few minutes a long line of people came through separating us from our friends, so I told Twenty-one that I had my final question.  He said it had better be a good one since I had extra time to come up with it, and I assured him it was and then fired “date or no date” at him.  I’m pretty sure his jaw unhinged and dropped as he stared at me and asked, “Did you just ask me out?”  I smiled and said, “Yep, I’m pretty sure I did, and I think it’s hilarious that all these people are walking by so you have time to answer.  What do you think?”  He pondered the situation for a few seconds and then replied, “I mean, I kind of want to say yes, but I don’t know you.  At all.”  Laughing, I said, “That’s the point.  It’s great!”  “Okay, then, yes, get my information from Ann; she knows how to get a hold of me.”  Score!  Then I told him bye because I had another party to get to – always leave them wanting more…for once I remembered that age-old wisdom.

Date 20.1

He remembered!  Twenty showed up at the salon for our date – yay!  We went to dinner at a carnival-themed restaurant called Straw, which I recommend for first dates because (a) the food is delicious and (b) if you’re not sure you’ll have much to talk about, you can discuss the atmosphere of the restaurant.  Fortunately, Twenty and I had plenty of conversation, and I think the evening was great.  We said goodbye outside of the restaurant, he gave me a hug, and then we talked for a while longer.  Then we said goodbye again, and he said he’d see me Sunday at church.  The bad news: like idiots, we didn’t exchange numbers.  The good news: I’m still interested in him, which is huge since I tend to lose interest in a guy after having a legitimate interaction with him.

I did see Twenty on Sunday.  I was greeting, and he walked up, gave me a hug, and stood next to me for a few minutes to talk; however, it was difficult to hold a steady conversation as I was also talking to people as they came in.  He told me he would see me inside, but after church was out I couldn’t find him.  Don’t worry, I had a brilliant idea – I wrote a note with my name and number and told him to get a hold of me this week and put it on the handlebars of his bike. 

After I left, I regretted that decision because there were way too many variables of why he might not call me – maybe I put it on the wrong bike (strong possibility because there were two bikes next to each other), maybe the note blew away, or maybe he just didn’t want to call me.  Ugh, this suspense is no good.

Twenty

Twenty goes to my church, and I’ve had a crush on him for a while now.  I first interacted with him when I was greeting one day and he skated up to the church steps on what I told him was possibly the coolest skateboard I’d ever seen.  He nonchalantly told me he had made it and used wheels from roller skates.  I replied that with the skateboard his cool factor shot through the roof.  Over the past few months we've shared small talk when we see each other at church, and then this weekend I randomly saw him at a bar where I was with some friends. 

I went over and said hi and we talked for a little while, but I wasn't courageous enough to ask him out before he left; however, I did tell him that we should hang out and that we would be a good balance for each other because he seems kind of serious while I’m just straight up goofy.  Never fear - two days later I saw him as I was leaving church, so I struck up a conversation with him.  I told him I was on my way to work and then like a person with tourettes I blurted out, “We should go to dinner!  What about tonight?!”  (I swear, most of the time I’m exclaiming these kind of things, I really don’t know that the words are coming out of my mouth at first, so maybe I do have a rare form of flirting tourettes). Twenty replied in an even-keeled manner, “Tonight?  Probably not tonight.  What about during the week sometime?  Maybe Thursday?”  There you have it folks, we made plans to go out for dinner on Thursday.  We didn’t trade numbers, though, so he’s just meeting me at the salon.  We’ll see what happens!