I spent all day today exchanging texts and engaging in online banter with the Tall South African, and he called me at lunchtime just to talk for a half-hour. He asked about my weekend plans, and when I asked about his, he mentioned that he was coming to London for a party tonight as well. He wasn't on the invite list for the birthday party I was going to, but the crowd included a lot of people he knows, and I became very suspicious when he asked what time I was moving on from my first party of the evening to the second birthday party. So needless to say, I took some care when dressing to go out.
First however, I had to go to my friend Jo's drinks. Jo is a friend from my Oxford days, a native Australian who has returned to live in Melbourne, and who I visited in Australia a year and a half ago. She was quickly passing through London, introducing her boyfriend to the crowds, and giving everyone a chance to catch up again. I had a good time catching up with my friends Zhan and Ali, who I hadn't seen in ages, and it was good to see them again. Ali in particular has sort of disappeared into the bowels of work and marriage, so it was good to see him out and catch up for a bit.
I wish I could have caught up with Ali more, but there was a good natural break right around the point that I would need to leave for the birthday party, so I took it, saying my good-byes, and heading off to the next stop of the evening.
When I arrived at Sophie's (almost exactly at 9 PM, like I'd said I would), the party was already in full swing. Navy Guy was there (I vaguely remembered exchanging texts with him about this) as well as the Young Dutchman and Kellogg Boy, who were wearing matching striped jackets from their dining society. They looked quite sharp, and I was pleased to see them both.
I hadn't been there long, when the Tall South African arrived with Lotte and her fiancee. I smiled when I saw him, and he laughed, saying, "I've known all week that we were going to the same party, but just wanted to play a trick on you..." Although silly boy, didn't you think I might figure it out? I'm pretty clever that way...
The evening becomes a bit of a blur at this point, as I was constantly being introduced to new people and chatting with them, and just making my way through the absolute crush of people. I offered to get Kellogg Boy a drink at one point, and made my way to the bar, getting served surprisingly quickly when I just asked for two glasses of wine. I figured that was easiest, and kept the bartenders happy with me while they were having to take ages to make fancy cocktails for everyone else.
I lost the Tall South African for a bit, as since we love our games, he was trying to ignore me for a bit. The silly boy though, I saw that this is what he was doing straight away, and so wasn't having any of that. Hence, when I returned to the bar later, I ended up chatting with some random guy at the bar who happened to be standing there.
Turns out he was a lawyer from Newcastle who had just moved to London last week, he was actually really cute and nice and ended up buying me quite a few drinks (including a shot of something that I have no idea what it was, and probably should have been more cautious about accepting!) He then had a friend who was trying to join him who was stuck outside the bar, so he swore he was just going out to find his friend and would come back in and find me, but you can probably guess how that one turned out... I was actually rather disappointed to lose him, as he'd actually seemed quite cute and nice. I'd have actually been interested in pursuing that one a bit more.
Luckily, this natural pause in the conversation (I must have been talking to the Newcastle Lawyer for over 20-30 min) gave me an excuse to circulate back out and return to the Tall South African, who at this point had realised how pointless the "ignoring me" strategy was. After all, I'd made it pretty clear that if he didn't pay attention to me, there were plenty of other boys who would. When you're playing with a girl as self-confident as I am, there's no insecure neediness that will make me want to get his attention.
So we returned to flirting, although the Young Dutchman was not a fan of this, pulling me aside at one point to whisper in my ear, "Remember, he was inside of Drunk Girl. Inside of THAT!" Argh, I know, but we've already been past this...
After a while, the bar was apparently closing, so the entire group made a mass exodus to the 151. I piled into a cab with the Tall South African and Kellogg Boy (as the Young Dutchman was planning on catching the last train back to Oxford that evening, and so now had to return to the train station). When we got to the door, I had to pay £10 to get in, which surprised me as I normally NEVER have to pay to get into clubs (I'm a cute girl, and cute girls normally don't get charged), but since it was a Friday night and I was too drunk to argue at this point, I just paid and went with it.
We went downstairs to the bar, checked our coats, and then hit the bar and the dance floor.
At this point, I honestly don't remember much, it's like the evening quickly fades to black. Somebody got me a drink, and next thing I remember is the Tall South African trying my drink and saying, "Oh my God, what is in this? Hey Kellogg Boy, you try this." He just seemed to absolutely be flipping out, and treating me with incredible concern. Did somebody spike my drink? Kellogg Boy tried my drink too, and then instantly agreed. "You need to get her home. Something is wrong with that."
After years of learning in college about the dangers of leaving your drinks unattended, or accepting drinks from strangers, I can't believe I was so stupid as to accept a strange drink in a nightclub, and now of course here were the consequences. But this is where I am so fortunate. I was in the company of two boys who went into full-on "protective man" mode, and I was pretty quickly hustled up to street level, Kellogg Boy hailed a cab, and the Tall South African got in with me. They kept urgently quizzing me about who gave me that drink, and sadly my fuzzy brain just could not remember. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
At least my fuzzy brain somehow remembered my address to tell the taxi driver how to get home. So the Tall South African and I got to my flat, for some reason I made chips and mayonnaise (seriously, I do not remember much at this point in the evening), and we went to bed.
The next morning, I was a bit surprised to wake up still mostly all dressed with the Tall South African beside me. Seeing me awake, he smiled and told me, "You were too drunk last night. Yes, I want you, but I would never want to take advantage of you." How lucky I am, that even when I do absolutely idiotic and stupid things (I cannot believe I was so dumb as to accept a spiked drink!), I find myself in the company of boys who care so much for me. Seems almost unfair that I should not have to pay any consequences for such an idiotic mistake, but I'm just grateful that nothing bad happened in the end. Lesson learned, definitely be more careful in the future, because my knight in shining armor might not be there to rescue me next time...
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