Dinner with Rob

My friend Rob from high school e-mailed me out of the blue on Monday, pointing out that we hadn’t caught up in ages, and suggesting a get together. Since he’d never been to my club, I suggested drinks there, and so there I was on Thursday night, once again.

We had some beers and just caught up on this and that (jobs, living situation, etc.) and then I was able to tempt Rob with the idea of dinner, so we went in to eat in the Coffee Room. I was reminded actually of how much I enjoy Rob’s company, as we ended up talking about everything from investing strategy to the differences between gay and straight dating.

I was delighted to hear that Rob had recently gotten into a relationship with someone, and although they were still in the early stages (it had been about 3 months), he said that they’d reached the stage where they were just wearing their hearts on their sleeves and were really open with one another, and he was just delighted with how well it was all going.

Even more humorously, the young man turned out to be an employee of Accenture! Apparently they’d met one very cold night when Rob had been without a coat, and this young man, upon seeing him freezing by the kerb, had asked if he wanted to share a cab. So they shared a cab back to East London and got to talking, and exchanged numbers. (Rob was saying to me, “What are the chances that not only would this guy be going back to East London, but also would be incredibly cute and gay?”) Although tragedy struck when almost immediately after, Rob lost his phone! So he had to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get his phone company to ship him a new phone with the same number, but the number of the cute guy was lost in the missing phone. All there was to do was wait and hope the guy called, and that he hadn’t already missed the call whilst his phone was lost.

Yet, as is true in all good fairytales, everything worked out. The young man called, they went out, and are now just living a totally blissfully happy existence. And Rob confided in me that he’d been single pretty much ever since he arrived in London five years ago, so this was a welcome change. Although there had been the occasional date here and there, this was the first real relationship in that incredibly long time.

And so I was encouraged, realising that when it happens, it happens all of a sudden. And so I’ve really got to home that I similarly meet a guy and am just overwhelmed by how cute, funny, and attractive he is, and everything just works out like that.

We ended up staying through dessert, I took him on a tour of the club, and it was such a warm night that Rob suggested we walk back to the Central Line. We ended up taking some interesting detours through SoHo and Old Compton Street, where Rob joked about how I’d shown him the upper-class life of my club, and now he was showing me the seedy underside of SoHo. But mostly it was just so much fun to catch up with an old friend, and be inspired by the idea that you never know what’s going to happen next!