After getting ticked off at work yesterday, I decided not to go to work today. As my father later pointed out to me, that's actually a very childish response to getting upset with people at work, but the fact remains that I totally got away with it. I sometimes think people must be annoyed that I seem to get away with everything...
Did my hair up in a style hopefully reminiscent of "Downton Abbey", and was relatively pleased with how it came out. Dressed up and made my way out to the Oriental Club, arriving just a few minutes after the 7:30 start time.
There was already quite a crowd there when I arrived, and I found myself chatting with Melissa and Gordon right in the doorway, it was such a packed crush that it took me a bit to make it over to where S was. He greeted me with his usual twinkling blue eyes, and I had to admit that it was good to see him, as I haven't spoken to him in ages. I was then pretty quickly dragged away when I was greeted by David, the chap I had met at the Christmas ball who is a good friend of the Young Dutchman. As he is a member of the Oriental Club, he was nominally our host for the evening. I also got a thrilled hug from Sophie when she arrived, and I was just about equally screeching with delight to see her as she was me. I really do adore Sophie, it was so good to see her. I spotted the Young Dutchman across the room, although right at that moment they began making the welcoming speeches, so we couldn't say hello to each other until afterwards.
Upon realising that there would be open seating instead of a seating plan, David quickly led The Young Dutchman and I down a back staircase so we could get to the dining room first to reserve ourselves some seats. Hysterically sneaky!
At dinner veryone was buzzing a bit about the news of our first Inter-Club attempted murder, because the guy in question had been an Oriental Club member. The dinner was actually served buffet style, with open seating, which was a bit unusual but since the whole thing had been £35 (and there was plenty of wine), nobody complained. Had a great time sitting with The Young Dutchman and David, laughing about how when we were chatting on Weds, I couldn't always be sure who I had been talking to. The Young Dutchman just pointed out, "Well, you always know when it's me when the conversation is laced with innuendo". Just made me giggle.
After dinner I noticed that there was an empty seat next to S, so told the Young Dutchman that I was going over to talk to him. The Young Dutchman topped up my drink ("for courage", he said) and off I went. And I had a lovely conversation with S, and at some points he was wonderfully flirtatious (buried his head in my shoulder for a bit), but as I was sitting there, this lightbulb went off in my head: "This is never going to go anywhere, now is it?" Just astonishingly clear realisation that this is going to run around in circles forever. Which remarkably gives me a measure of clarity, and allows me to think it will be nice to see him at drinks on Weds, but now I don't need to bother. I can't even quite say what exactly it was that gave me the sudden moment of insight (perhaps when he broke off conversation with me to talk to Piers, who had come by? That I'd had to come to him in the first place?) but I suddenly could assure you that S is in it for the chase, but not the catching. Sure he likes me, but he likes the banter and the frission, not any real result.
Also, I have to admit that while I kind of like the wild caveman look, his odor is a bit too au-natural. My nose wrinkles, and somehow they say that it's a pheremone thing, when you just like the way people smell.
Hence, when he suggested we retire from the dinner table to go upstairs for drinks, I assured him that I would follow as soon as I got the Young Dutchman to refill my glass, but of course just got stuck in conversation with Sophie and the Young Dutchman and did not follow. Had a good laugh when the Young Dutchman did indeed refill my glass, as we'd been having fun teasing David all evening about how he wasn't attentive enough to me and the state of my wine glass. Upon seeing the Young Dutchman attend to me first, David jumped up with a start to realise he'd been beaten to it once again!!
David did then pull over a chair to sit next to me and talk, being hugely attentive to me as he always is. I can't quite figure it out (maybe he's just really is that nice), but I wonder if on some level he'd like to see me and the Young Dutchman, his two favourite people, get together. After all, I spent some time explaining my relationship with the Young Dutchman to him, as he seemed puzzled about how we talk together every day and get on so well, but have no interest in taking things any further. Okay, I confess, we're perfectly suited, but we want different things. (i.e. The Young Dutchman wants to sleep with lots of people, I want one boy on call). David is wonderfully attentive to me though, and I appreciate how he always cares for me.
I can understand however, how people become suspicious of when "the lady doth protest too much", because one of the more interesting scandals of the evening was when Melissa and Gordon were found snuggled up in a chair together at the end of the evening, kissing. I'd previously interrogated both Melissa and Gordon about how close they seemed, but both had emphatically insisted that they were "just friends". I suppose that's going to be a harder claim to make from now on!!
Scrym kept coming around taking photos, and he did get the usual photo of the two of us together, but that one never showed up on FB, rather curiously. Perhaps it was just that he realised he'd been taking so many photos of me all evening that it was starting to look rather weird. At least I never have to worry about bringing my own camera when Scrym is around, as he loves taking pictures of me!
We finally did make our way upstairs, and I chatted with S for a bit, but quickly moved on. Was having a lot more fun hanging out with Sophie, the Young Dutchman, and David.
As the club was closing down, everyone was wondering where to go next, and Bryan suggested going to this private member's casino that he's a member of. So a few of us set out together. It did not escape my attention as we left however that S had apparently left for the evening without saying good-bye to me.
This club that we ended up at was totally bizarre, as it was sort of like any private member's club you've ever been to, except with beautiful stained-glass windows, fresh-cut flowers in every room, and original Andy Warhol's on the walls. It was open with incredibly attentive staff looking after us until 4 AM, and we ended up on this beautiful balcony later on with some random young guys chomping on cigars. Think of something out of James Bond's "Casino Royale". It was all so surreal, I absolutely felt like I was on a movie set.
As it was cold out, David gave me his jacket (attentive as ever), and we ended up just staying up there talking about random topics and drinking beer out of lead-crystal glasses. I mean, as you do, right? Finally all those of us who lived in West London piled into a cab and headed home, I think it was around 5 AM by the time I was back in my flat.
All in all, a fantastic night, which has me looking forward to the week ahead. Promised David I would make plans on Monday to play squash with him this week, and I've got to sort out a long overdue squash game with Bryan too. (Being the gent that he is, Bryan refused to let me pay for anything from our late-night jaunt, although I promised to make it up to him by giving him a real run-around at squash). Now that I feel like I know the score with Mr T, looking forward to making it a game worth playing when I see him on Weds. And then we'll see what other prospects appear on the horizon...
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