Last night, Sweetheart had sent me the most random text, asking, "Are you out in Parson's Green tomorrow night?" I almost had to wonder if he was stalking me, as indeed I was due to go to a party in Parson's Green tonight. So I invited him along, and he said he would call me later to make plans.
I ended up totally swamped at work, and hence it was 7PM before I was even free to jump through the shower. Which given that I was supposed to be at this party at 8PM meant I was really running behind! Luckily I managed to get ready in pretty much 30 minutes. Not much time to properly do my hair or make-up, but I threw on a red dress and got my hair into at least acceptable shape. When Sweetheart called, it turned out that he was running pretty much with my timing, so we agreed to set out shortly and meet in Parson's Green for dinner.
I was hungry, and so was he, so we went to Cote, a restaurant I've always liked, for dinner. It was funny, because it was the first time I've ever been out with Sweetheart one-on-one like that, but it was a fine time. We split a bottle of red wine and even a cote du boef, making him remark when we split the bill, "How Dutch can you get?" It was a lovely warm, cozy and busy restaurant, we had a great waitress, and he really seemed to enjoy himself.
We found ourselves talking about the Tall South African and the Blonde, and he claimed that the Blonde is very American, in that she always wants to know where a relationship is going, right from the first date, a trait of American girls. I have to admit, she has that panic every time she gets together with a boy, wondering if it could be something long-term. And I can think of quite a few American friends of mine who are like that.
There was also a part of me thinking in the back of my head, "I wonder how much he knows I know?" Given that I know Sweetheart had once gotten together with the Blonde after promising her that they might have a relationship, but it all went south almost immediately afterwards, I thought it was an interesting bit of insight that he thought she was like that. With the girl he dumped her for, apparently, she was very British and never worried about where the relationship was going, was just happy to be along for the ride at the moment. But then of course, she dumped him!
We talked a bit about some of the other crazier relationships he's had, about work and what he does, and just a generally wide-ranging and interesting conversation. At one point we got to talking about his theory that if you ever want to know what trait people hate most in themselves, you should simply ask a date what they most dislike in others.
Which for some reason made me bring up the Giant Australian, and the ongoing flirtation that we'd had for years. Which I hypothesised never quite came about, because the Giant Australian always struck me as being so damn arrogant. When I mentioned the Giant Australian, Sweetheart really latched onto that, saying he'd asked the Giant Australian sometime back why things had never worked out between us, and the Giant Australian said that he didn't have a clue why not. Apparently the Giant Australian has been dating a girl for some time now who he is practically engaged to, and I feel happy for him. Although perhaps also a bit annoyed with myself for missing out on my chance there. My own fault though.
Finally after dinner, we made our way next door to the champagne bar where this party was being held. Sweetheart had arrived in jeans and wearing a Santa hat, which had him sticking out quite a bit with the posh crowd that was there, but he's always pretty comfortable anywhere, so I didn't worry about it much. We got in, I introduced him around to a few people, and got him into conversation with a few people we had been at Ascot with this past summer, including a girl who had trained one of the horses running. I also made a point to find the hostess of the evening, who was due to be on my table at the ball the next day.
As I was standing there talking to the hostess, a friend of hers who had just arrived came up to say hello. He apologised for dragging two friends with him and gate-crashing, but of course the hostess was fine with this. And as they were talking, I caught sight of one of the random friends he'd dragged along with him. Wow. My heart almost skipped a beat, he was so damn attractive. Brown hair, blue-eyes, somewhat tall but not toweringly so, dressed in a collared shirt and sweater. Super-preppy, in just the right way. And best of all, with a lovely smile and eyes that wrinkled slightly at the corners, as though he were always laughing at something.
Okay, but what is a guy like that ever going to want to have to do with a girl like me? The girl who flew through the shower in 30 minutes before coming out? All of a sudden, I wished I'd had more time to get ready.
Yet, one of the few things I've learned in life is that you should always go for the most attractive guy in the room. Because when somebody really hits you like that, and he just seems to glow a bit brighter than any other guy in the room, where there's that "zing!" you feel upon seeing them? Yeah, quite often that's the magic of chemistry, where the reason it's happening for you is because it's happening for them too.
And so after a few smiles and shared glances across our group of friends, we somehow found ourselves talking to each other. Spoke to him exclusively for the rest of the evening. We told a lot of funny bad dating stories, seeming to confirm that we were both single, and I was at least grateful for some of my more bizarre stories as of late. I learned that he lived in Barnes (far out in West London, but not too far from me), liked to go salsa dancing on Monday nights, and was working on getting funding for his own start-up. It was annoying however, as there was a very loud band playing in one corner of the bar, which meant that our entire conversation had to happen practically shouting into each other's ears. Good in that it allowed us to get close, bad in that it meant I couldn't make a lot of eye contact, nor could we talk very easily.
For my part, I made sure to emphasise several times that Sweetheart was just a friend, although I did feel bad at how with me totally ignoring everyone in favour of talking to this guy, Sweetheart looked somewhat adrift. I tried pulling him into the conversation a bit, but before too long, Sweetheart told me that he was going to head out, as he was running in a triathlon in the morning. He's wonderfully astute though, and when he kissed me goodbye, just kissed me on each cheek like any friend would, not on the lips like we often do (and as he had done when we said hello).
When our drinks were both empty, this guy bought me a new one from a passing waitress, which I took as a good sign. Later, he went back to quickly check on something with his friends across the room, but kept catching my eye the entire time he was gone from across the room, which I thought was sweet. Yet, I guess the conversation was that they were going to be moving on to another bar on their "boy's night out", and so he came back to me to say good-bye and get his coat. At which point, he just kept chatting to me and putting his coat on, making no mention about exchanging numbers or seeing me again. Which after everything else I'd experienced this evening, struck me as rather odd.
So finally I said to him, "I hope I get to see you again at some point", which made him remark rather absent-mindedly, "Oh yeah, I suppose I'd better give you my card." He pulled out his business card, and I gave him mine, although there was something about the way that this was a total afterthought that made me think, "He's never going to call." I suppose you can always hold out hope that you might be proven wrong, but all of a sudden, I just got that feeling. I hate that feeling.
I stayed for a bit longer, but with both Sweetheart and the cute boy gone, I was pretty determined to leave quickly too. The only thing that held me up was a text from Sweetheart saying that he'd forgotten his credit card at the bar. It took quite a bit of convincing and showing the guy at the bar Sweetheart's text to get him to give it to me (you have to admit, I don't look a lot like Sweetheart!), but eventually he did hand it over. So with promises to meet up with Sweetheart to give it back later, made my own way home, after quite an unexpectedly interesting night...
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