In the morning, I got a text from Caroline, asking whether the Tall South African was planning on coming to her birthday. I tried to caution her that he might not, both because I wanted to preserve the surprise and because I truly wasn't sure at this point if he would come. Yet I'm not sure if she truly got the cautionary warning I was trying to give her, she is just so hung up on him these days. Oh well, at least I tried...
In the evening, I was due to go out to my friend Doro's leaving drinks, as she is moving back to Heidelberg to study to become an orthodontist. She actually had already flown back this past week, and was coming back to London for a quick weekend jaunt and to have a leaving party with all of her friends.
I had a ton of things to get done at work, and I found that my original plans to stop by the Lansdowne quickly went out the window, as did my idea that I would arrive at the nightclub she'd arranged before they started charging for entry after 9PM. (Given that entry between 9-10PM was only £2, I figured I could spare it).
I finally made it to the venue just before 10 PM, and then was surprised when there was no sign of the guest of honour anywhere. I finally recognised at a table one of her friends who I had met once before, and he told me that she was still at dinner at Pizza Express. She'd said that the original plan was to have dinner there and make it to the club by 8:30 PM, it was 10:30 PM before she finally made it! Quite unusual for the normally punctual German... But in a great twist, a friend who now lives in Hong Kong had shown up as a surprise, and had arranged with the restaurant to dress up as a waitress and try to take the table's order. I can only imagine what a surprise that must have been, to look up and see that your waiter was someone you expected to be on the other side of the world!
When she finally joined the crowd, I chatted with her for a bit, and got into conversation for a while with a friend of her boyfriend's who seemed rather taken with me, but when we stood up as part of the natural flow of conversation, he didn't pursue, so I guess he wasn't that keen.
I spent a while chatting to a guy I'd had a fling with ages ago who was rather dull, and just did my best to keep the conversation entertaining, before I finally just realised that these were all her friends, not mine, and I was bored. Particularly given that we were in south London, and the journey home would take an hour, when it reached 11:30 PM, I made my apologies to the guest of honour and headed back to the Tube.
As I was walking, I saw a guy coming at me from the other direction, who I could have sworn gave me a funny look. Yet, given that he walked on past me, I assumed it had been my imagination. A few moments later however, I heard footsteps running up behind me, and the man calling to me, "Miss? Miss?"
I wondered if I had dropped something, and so turned to see what he wanted. When he caught back up to me, a bit out of breath, he asked, "Miss, would you go for a drink with me?"
Ummm...wow. Not what I had expected. A bit taken aback, I asked him, "Right now?"
"Yes!" he eagerly replied.
Now this is the thing: It's all very flattering to be asked out by a random guy on the street, because he is so taken with you. This has happened to me several times before, where I've been asked out on the Tube or some such thing. People have told me it's because I smile too much, although I swear I tried not to do that here.
Yet, if a guy asks you out like that, he's going on only one thing: What you look like. This guy didn't know that I was funny or witty or clever or kind...all he knew was that he thought I was pretty. So I had to go based on my equal knowledge of him: His appearance. And quite frankly....well let's just say I didn't find myself overwhelmed by the urge to kiss him, so I kindly thanked him for asking, but I was trying to catch the last Tube home. I tried to be kind about it, as I figure it must have taken great courage to ask me like that, but really...
When I posted this little story on Facebook later (as it amused me), I was surprised at how many people asked me if I'd gone out with him. I know everybody loves the crazy romantic story, but really...there's a reason it doesn't often work like that. Still, how nice to know that even random boys on the street think I'm pretty, eh?
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