When I woke up in the morning, my head was fine (I didn't need any paracetemol), but I felt distinctly in a fog all day. Seriously, the drinking needs to stop, I don't know what's happened recently to all of my good behaviour since my 30th birthday. I managed to survive the workday, but at 5 PM I had to put my head down and nap for half-an-hour, I was just so wiped.
Still, I couldn't sleep for long, as I needed to head out to the Lansdowne to meet Ryan and return his camera, since I'd forgotten it the night before.
I made it to the club, and ran into Fiona and Stephanie as soon as I arrived, and accepted their invitation to join them for dinner out on the patio. We were joined by a few other random people, and it was really a nice conversation, if a bit random in various topics.
When we'd finished our dinner and rain seemed to be threatening, we decided to move inside, where we managed to gather some couches around into a conversational grouping, and continue our chatter.
I was surprised when after a little bit, JG showed up! He berated me for not waiting for him the night before, but since I'd already told everyone before he arrived about my horrible behaviour, everyone laughed at the story. Still, I was surprised to learn that he'd waited another 10 minutes for me outside the club, until the staff barricaded the outer wooden doors, and he figured out that I'd gone home. It's amazing how persistent boys can be when they think they might get some action!
As we'd moved inside to the couches, we were a bit short on space for people to sit, hence those of us on the larger couches had to get a bit cozy. Faced with having to pick someone to sit thigh-to-thigh with, JG came over and picked me. Ah yes, there's obviously still some intimacy there...particularly as even after chairs opened up, and JG would leave to go outside to smoke a cigarette, he would come back to sitting squeezed in with me. I was glad to see that all seemed to have been forgiven, particularly as I know I haven't always been terribly kind to JG. Although I hate the smoking and drinking, as he quickly had the whole crowd in stiches at some of his stories, I had to admit he really is a wonderfully decent guy. I should really treat him with more concern than I currently do.
Yet, as the crowd continued to shift and JG got up to go outside for another cigarette break, I found myself sitting next to the Young Dutchman. And as we leaned back on the settee, I found myself quite close to him, and the thing that struck me was how much nicer his faint whiff of cologne smelled than JG's aura of smoke. Girls really do have much more sensitive noses than men do, and it's amazing how much smell affects our perception of how attractive we find men to be.
Still, while I can't stand JG's cigarettes, I was amused to see that Fiona kept skipping out for cheeky cigarette breaks with JG. I wasn't entirely surprised, because she was the one to invite him this evening, and she'd already related how she found herself smoking the night before (despite not being a smoker). Hence, I couldn't help but smile to see the two of them getting along so brilliantly. The two of them eventually found themselves ensconced on a couch together, and I turned to look at the Young Dutchman, who caught where I was looking and smiled along with me. It's always somewhat amusing to see an attraction like that blossoming!
(Admittedly Fiona confessed to be later, "Yes, Johnny and I hit it off - he's probably about half my age, though!")
Finally at some late hour, the club closed, and we were all ushered out onto the street. As the crowds stood around, we realised that Fiona and JG were nowhere to be seen. I had to chuckle to myself, because while normally I would have used this opportunity to make up to JG my horrid behaviour of the night before, I was almost glad to see that he was ditching me for another girl. Goodness knows I deserved it! And in truth, I had to smile, because I am so fond of JG, I honestly hope he finds a girl who either doesn't mind the cigarettes, or who inspires him to quit.
With no JG or Fiona to be seen, I was ready to just head off, but a few of the others in the crowd insisted that we should now all go for coffee at the Hilton. And this is where I'm terrible at leaving parties, as I should have just refused and gone home, but instead I just got sucked along with the crowds (with the Young Dutchman, mostly) and on to the Hilton. Even as we walked to the Hilton, I said to the Young Dutchman, "This is one of those instances where we've had an absolutely brilliant evening, and should probably just leave it at that, shouldn't we?" But alas, when you're having such a good time at the party, you never want the party to end...
We made it to the Hilton, where unfortunately we discovered there was a line to get into this penthouse sky lounge that we wanted to go to. I was properly tired at this point, but stuck in conversation with a very tall, very loud, 19-year old Harvard rower. Seriously, he is probably a catch back home, but he was just so....American! Kind of funny to see what the boys were once like though...
We finally got into the bar, where once there I found the view was pretty, but there was nowhere to sit and I wasn't quite making it into the conversations being had by others. In fact, in our evenly-paired group, I was getting stuck with an older divorced guy who was obviously an alcoholic, as even when standing in line they'd been threatening to kick him out.
In the end, I couldn't even manage to interrupt conversations to say my good-byes, so I just walked out and left. Perhaps rude, but I didn't think anybody would miss me. Jumped on a night-bus (haven't taken one of those in ages!) and finally got back home at 2:30 AM, well ready for bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment