This evening I had agreed to meet up with the two girls I run the Dartmouth Club of London with, to talk about our plans for events for the upcoming year. It meant that I was missing the regular Tuesday evening run, but given how bitterly cold out it was, I probably would have wanted to skip anyway! CBDG has warned me that he was injured and so wouldn't be running, but after realising that I would be missing the run too, we'd agreed to meet up in the pub together after the run.
But first, I was off to Home House, where we had all agreed to meet. When I arrived, only one of the girls, the '97 who was a member of Home House, was there, although not too much later we were joined by the other co-chair, a '00. We managed to make it through our order of business, planning events, relatively quickly, and I think we actually came up with some decent ideas for the year.
I was so glad that we'd accomplished all of our business relatively quickly, and was then hoping to pop over to the pub as soon as I could. But I suppose I was too optimistic, as the girls wanted to stay and talk about being single and meeting boys. Too quickly, it just turned into one of those weird conversations with girls in their 30's where they start talking about how you can't be so picky, that they'd be happy with a nice guy who had a decent job, and that's about it. And it just kind of shocked me, that sense of....desperation, I guess. Is this what your 30's are supposed to be like?
And yet they really seem to have this sense of urgency, that idea that "If I don't find a guy soon, all is lost." And I can't really decide whether they're doing something right ("they've got their priorities straight, they're focused on what they really want") or totally wrong ("is it a good idea to lower your standards that much?") They really seemed to think that there were no decent single guys out there, and just stared at me like I had two heads when I was saying, "I know tons of nice guys! Although ones that even though there's no damn good reason not to like them, I just find I'm not attracted to them." And it was like they just couldn't understand why on earth a girl who knew a nice, decent guy with a good job who liked her wouldn't immediately want to settle down with him. Seriously, they were staring at me like I was an alien from another planet. Am I a defective 30-something?
And so when I finally managed to shut them up (God, they could talk about being single forever!), I skipped on over to a nearby pub, where CBDG was waiting for me. And he greeted me with this huge smile, as his face absolutely lit up when he saw me, and then laughed, "I already got you your Guinness!" (My favourite drink, the boy knows me well, and is so sweet to get me one before I even arrive). "But you took so long to get here I had to start bloody drinking it myself!" Oh gosh, that made me laugh.
We spent the rest of the evening standing there talking, just the two of us... And occasionally somebody would come up and interrupt us (usually people wanting to say hello to me), and we'd chat to them together for a bit until they would leave us alone again and we could just return to that unspoken agreement that we just liked each other's company better. We talked about his weekend, his mum's birthday, winning a raffle contest at the football match he went to...just everything. Oxford Boy came over to say hello (he's in a suit too, I guess a lot of people didn't want to run this freezing cold evening!) and wrapped me up in a big hug, but I'm still more focused on CBDG. Not that I wasn't thrilled to see Oxford Boy, but he definitely was just more of a distraction at this point.
Until we finally admitted that it was getting late and finished our drinks (dammit, why did I not arrive earlier?), and so we walked to the Tube together, at which point he reminded me that he didn't have my number and so insisted on getting it from me so he could call me later this week. After all, neither of us has plans on Friday. (Okay, actually I do, as I always have plans, but nothing I wouldn't prefer to skip to spend some time with CBDG).
And so we made our way down into the Tube, where it came time for us to part for our different lines (Central Line for me, Jubilee Line for him). He kissed me on each cheek, and then held onto me just a bit too long as we parted. First real sign of flirtation ever from him, it was such a minor thing, but absolutely sent sparks of electricity tingling up and down my spine. Amazing how the smallest gestures can be the most charged ones.
When I got down underground, I checked my phone, and saw I had a text from Princess telling me he's making s'mores. Yeah, seriously. How random is that?
I texted CBDG when I got home (now that we had exchanged numbers, and he immediately wrote back, "Hey, glad you got home okay! It was even cold on the tube! Nice to see you and I'll give you a shout later in the week. Night!"
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