Seventy-four and I met through a mutual acquaintance on Valentine's Day. I went to watch a band because I had recently met the guitarist and told him I'd check out his band next time they played. Seventy-four was at the same show and at one point when my friends and I were dancing up a storm I danced over to him and said, "We saved some space for you on the dance floor" to which he replied, "Nah, I'm good" so I just smiled and danced away. Towards the end of the show my friends and I were trying to guess which people in the crowd were dating the which band members, and we guessed that Seventy-four was with the singer. However when Guitarist walked out after the show it turns out he and Seventy-four were friends. Guitarist introduced us, and within five minutes I brought up karaoke and spirit animals and within two minutes it was clear that he thought I was a complete imbecile. Then I apparently redeemed myself by saying that I was going to finish the evening at another bar for some live jazz because he showed up there. It turns out that before the live jazz which I'm at weekly there is open-mic night that Seventy-four and Guitarist attend. Before the evening was through, Seventy-four and I learned that we live in the same neighborhood (and that he actually lives a block away from a few of my good friends) and we danced. A drunk guy kept trying to get us to dance, and I finally agreed thinking he'd leave us alone; this worked for a bit, but the guy ended up returning, at which point Seventy-four grabbed my hand and led me to the dance floor. When he was leaving he offered to drive me home, and I accepted and told my friends good night. I decided to fight my normal inclinations and (a) not ask him out, (b) not get his number, and (c) not kiss him. I figured if we go to the same bar pretty much every week we'd run into each other soon. A couple of days later one of my friends that was with me that night told me that she saw him on a dating app, so I learned that he was 32 (What? I was interested in someone that wasn't 10 years younger?!) and apparently single (yay!)
However, we didn't run into each other for several weeks, so I ended up asking Guitarist for Seventy-four's number and was told, "I don't give out my friend's numbers." A few days later I texted Guitarist about it and he told me again that he didn't give out numbers, and I replied, "I totally respect that, but I thought you would ask him for permission." I didn't ask Guitarist again because I could tell he was having none of it (my friend insists it's because she thinks Guitarist likes me, whoops). After a few more weeks, I was returning two giant campfire roasting sticks (picture miniature tridents) to my friend when I saw Seventy-four sitting in his car. I decided it would look a little crazy to cross the street and knock on his window while holding large, sharp objects and figured it was worth the risk to stop at my friend's as planned and hope that he was still out there. Fail. Literally as I was leaving my friend's and crossing the road, Seventy-four got out of his car and walked into his house while I was still half a block away (I'll holler to a friend three blocks away, but I couldn't bring myself to yell at a handsome guy I met over a month ago from half a block). As fate would have it though, that night I went to jazz and was walking in just as Seventy-four was leaving. We said hi and he told me he had to head home but that Guitarist was still inside, and I replied, "But you're not...can I get your number before you go then?" He paused before saying, "I have a girlfriend" to which my obvious response was, "Congratulations!" Then he followed up with, "I can't just be giving out my number since I have a girlfriend." I decided the correct response was something about us being neighbors when what I really wanted to say was, "WHEN DID YOU GET A GIRLFRIEND?! YOU WERE ALONE ON VALENTINE'S DAY, AND A FEW WEEKS AGO YOU HAD A DATING PROFILE!!!!!!" (Wow, my self-control is really improving.) Then before saying goodbye he said he'd see me in the neighborhood.
In conclusion: Dear Guitarist, Next time just tell me that your hot friend has a girlfriend and save me the trouble.
