Friday morning I got some good news from a friend who is helping to organise a ball in March. I may have invited Roofie's Brother to go to said ball with me, but to my surprise, the tickets sold out before I was able to acquire any! Admittedly, Roofie's Brother has said he'd like to go with me, but has another obligation that he needs to get out of first. Still, how embarrassing to have invited someone to an event you don't have tickets to, eh? Hence, it was quite a relief when this friend called at 7:20 AM (!) to let me know that I was all set, that he'd found two extra places for me on his table.
I hadn't responded to the last e-mail I'd gotten from Roofie's Brother, given that I wasn't sure what to write back to him after our last e-mail exchange. He normally writes back to me right away, and so here I'd been leaving him hanging for a while. So I shot him a quick e-mail to let him know I had gotten tickets, and hoped he would be free to join me. Obsessed all afternoon about his lack of response (even though I hadn't expected one), but was grateful at the end of the work day when he wrote back, saying he had a family thing that day but was hopeful he could get out of it.
In the afternoon, the Tall South African and the Lovely Dutch Girl came over (he'd come down to London last night and stayed over at hers), and came to spend a little while with me, with the plan that the Tall South African would stay with me this evening.
Only as we were getting ready to go out did the Tall South African realise that it was Friday, not Saturday, and all of his plans were for the following night, and right now he had nothing to do. So I sent a quick text to the guy organising the friend's birthday dinner that I was going to this evening, and he told me it was fine if I brought the Tall South African along. (Admittedly, my original plan had been to go for dinner with Joel, but Joel had called me on Wednesday to let me know that wasn't happening. Much more like the Joel I know and love!)
I called Sweetheart and we made a plan to meet on the same train and head over together. The timing worked out perfectly, as right when we got to the train platform, Sweetheart stuck his head out of the train, and off we went to join him. He gave me his usual kiss on the lips, and off we went to Victoria station.
Once there, we caught a train, and somehow ended up chatting to a random French girl for the entire journey. Admittedly, that's typical with Sweetheart, as he will talk to almost anyone.
We got to the restaurant, I sat down with Kitty and the Tall South African, and we just sat there chatting for a while while we waiting for our food. (We'd all had to pre-order our dinners and the pub had even closed the kitchen for an hour to deal with us, they were so overwhelmed by such a large group. Only 20 of us really, but still more than this little pub could really do!)
I had figured it would be just a chill evening out with friends, and Roofie's Brother hadn't mentioned he was going when we last spoke, so I didn't worry much about my appearance as we were leaving, and just went even though I was slightly dissatisfied with how I looked when I walked out the door. I got quite the surprise then when halfway through dinner, Roofie's Brother showed up! Damn. I probably looked fine, but it was definitely one of those moments where I suddenly wished I'd put some more time into getting ready.
He'd arrived with a girl who I know he is good friends with, whose birthday happened to be today as well. They apparently hadn't originally planned on coming (ah, so that explains why I was caught off-guard), but at the last minute decided to show up.
Since they hadn't booked, we were out of space at the table, but the waitress was willing to move a table and a few chairs to tack some extra space on to the end of the table, and so I took some delight when he chose to sit next to me. Had a good time chatting with him, although was a bit embarrassed when someone mentioned what I'd told them in conversation earlier, that I would be playing polo the next day. I always feel like that gives people the wrong impression, but he assured me he just thought it was cool and interesting, and he'd love to try it sometime. Given that I know his background isn't as superficially "posh" as mine, I'd hate for anyone to get the wrong impression about me.
I then spent some time chatting with his female friend who he'd arrived with, and got very annoyed at myself for how impatient I was chatting to her. Because she's actually a really lovely girl, and seemed to be doing her best to reassure me that they two of them were nothing more than friends. (We were talking about how our mothers can sometimes get overly excited every time we mention a boy's name, as though there might be some romantic interest there, and she kept having to tell her mum that he was nothing of the sort). Yet the more I talked to her, the more I was aware that I was not talking to him, and resented her for stealing so much of his attention (which was perfectly reasonable, given that he had arrived with her and it was her birthday!)
Not like I had a leg to stand on either, given that I'd arrived with the Tall South African who was also occupying too much of my attention. So here I'd gone and arrived with a good male friend, same as he had done, so I really couldn't complain. Yet it's funny how your brain won't always think rationally in these situations...
At least I had good fun later on when somebody mentioned that the Tall South African was staying with me, and I didn't want Roofie's Brother to get the wrong impression about that, so I kept teasing the Tall South African mercilessly about how he would be sleeping at the foot of my bed like a puppy dog. Later, when we were outside just the two of us, I wrapped my arms around him to snuggle up to him and apologise, and he just laughed and assured me that he could take it. At least he's good like that...
Finally at around 11 PM, dinner was over and there was the question of whether to stay for one more drink or head home. After all, we were located in the middle of nowhere, as we were near the Birthday Girl's flat, which was the far end of nowhere for the rest of us. I checked in with Roofie's Brother to see what he was doing, and he said he was going, so I figured we might as well leave. But then Sweetheart wanted to come with me and the Tall South African, and another girl who lives nearby said she would come too, so then we figured we should all get a cab. And then it had taken us so long to figure out if we were leaving, that Roofie's Brother had decided to stay with his female friend for one more drink, given that it was her birthday.
Hence, final good-byes were rushed and awkward, as there always are when too many people are around. I got a quick peck on the lips, but it was weird. Time to all pile in the cab and head home, and hopefully things will be better when I see him on Sunday!
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