58.That's Enough For Now

When I told my best friend the following story his instant response was, "Do you ever feel like you're on an episode of New Girl?"  Absolutely, all the time, and it's pretty great.  I met Fifty-eight twice through mutual friends several months ago when he was visiting the Bay Area, and then recently at a New Year's Eve party.  At this party he told me that he had officially moved to the area and that he was hoping he'd see me and asked for my number.  That's a good sign, right?  Good, yes; clear, apparently not.  The following week he got a hold of me and we made loose plans to meet up when I was off work.  I let him know that I'd be finished after 6:30; at 7:00 I was still waiting to hear back from him and decided to go get some food (my stomach waits for no man, plus I wasn't sure if dinner was even on our agenda).  When I'd almost cleared my plate, he texted me to apologize and ask if it was too late to hang out; I told him where I was and he met me there.  The first downfall is that I was sitting at a place where I know all the people working, so they stood around and chatted with us and then asked if we were going to Motown Monday.  I hadn't mentioned that to him because in my head I had already decided I didn't need to take him to my absolute favorite I'm-a-complete-regular-there place to dance on our first night out (mainly because I had no idea if I was supposed to consider this a date), but he was intrigued and asked what they were talking about, to which one of the girls told him, "Only Penelope's favorite place to be on any given Monday." Fifty-eight looked at me and said, "That sounds fun, I'm game." Fantastic.  We go, have a great time, and then he goes there with me three weeks in a row...and never makes a move on me.  After the third week of barely-there communication throughout the week, but always wanting to come in to the city to go dancing with me for Motown night, I have absolutely zero idea what's happening.  I'm fine if it's nothing, but I really want to know if for no other reason than, "Can I flirt and dance with other people, or do you like me and are just being really slow about letting me in on the secret?"  That's what I want to blurt out, but I'm trying to teach myself to keep some things in my head and try letting others take the lead (people apparently call this method, "letting things happen organically." I think it's stupid, but that could just be because I'm no good at it).

Fast forward to after the third Motown night, a group of us had made plans to go to karaoke.  Fifty-eight was excited for this, and I told him that he could stay at my place that night (in a non-slutty way, more of a "hey, you live across the bridge and will be drinking so this makes sense" kind of way).  At the end of the night we told everyone bye and headed to my place, and I managed to keep my "what is happening between us?!?!?" thoughts to myself.  We fell asleep pretty much immediately, and when I say "we" I mean "he" because let's be honest, when there's a guy (whether you have a crush on him or not) sleeping in your bed you don't sleep because chances are you're way to worried about the important things in life - what if I snore, please don't let me fart, did I drool, how bad is my breath.  At some point I did manage to fall asleep, but then I woke up and thought he might be awake, too, so I tested the waters by whispering, "Question." "Yeah?" "I know you were excited about a good night sleep, but would it mess things up if we kissed a little?" "Sure.  We can do that."  This is what you've all been waiting for...he puts his arm around me and gives me four (I repeat four) pecks (I repeat pecks) on the mouth and then says, "I don't mind getting closer, but that's enough for now." What?!?!  I honestly had no idea how to respond to that other than to just say okay and then laugh hysterically in my mind.  I mean, seriously, that response was not on my radar at all.  I expected, "I don't think that's a good idea" or "Absolutely."  It's been a week and I'm still laughing about his response.

I could justify his reaction and give my theories on this situation, but...that's enough for now (this is officially my favorite phrase for 2014).