Now we have several bars to choose from & we started with the one that had the most cars parked out front and after paying the five dollar cover and getting our hands stamped, we realized that the vast majority of the people there were much older or much younger than us and the few who weren't were coupled up. Having paid the cover already, we decided to have a few drinks anyway and wait to see if the band was any good. After two VERY loud and VERY country songs, we bailed.
We jumped in the car and went a few blocks over to the bar we usually go to and despite it looking dead, we went in any way. This bar is two stories and lower floor has a bar you can sit at, a bunch of tables and a dance floor with a stage. We aren't first floor chics and we usually go upstairs which has another bar, pool tables and a banister-ed walking area going around so that you can watch the people dancing below while you hang out.
Fairy and I like to go upstairs and get our drinks from the bar that is up there right next to the banister so we can see everything going on. The problem was that once we got upstairs we realized that the bar wasn't busy enough for the upstairs bar to be open. About this time Fairy's new boyfriend (!!!) called and she went out on the porch to talk to him which left me to venture back downstairs to get our drinks.
I walk over to the part of the bar where the bartender can enter and exit and there are two guys standing there wanting to get drinks as well, one of which is the basis of my little tale here and who we will be calling Dimples. I made eye contact with him and smiled and he looked away shyly. I got my drinks and went back upstairs.
Here is the thing though, I recognized him. I couldn't figure out from where or how, but I just had this VERY strong feeling that I knew who he was.
Once I found Fairy I told her about him. We had to wait a few minutes for him to be in our line of sight but once he was, she agreed that he was adorable but said she didn't think she'd seen him before. I was racking my brain trying to figure out where I knew him from. At this point, I am wanting to go downstairs, I mean I can't make eyes at this guy if we are upstairs and he is downstairs but Fairy is telling me no, that we should just wait.
In the famous words of Inigo Montoya, "I hate wait."
It turned out that she was right though. A few minutes later Dimples and his friend who we will call Marty came upstairs to play pool. Fairy and I both saw them coming up the stairs and she leaned over and was all, "make eye contact!"
Having known Fairy as long as I have and having been out with her when she was single, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that had that conversation went the other way, she would have said, "no way!" and blushed a deep crimson. But apparently when she has a BF, she has balls.
And so do I.
So right before he was going to walk behind us headed to the pool tables, I turned and made eye contact and smiled. And he looked away all shyly again. Which, while cute, was becoming a little questionable. And I was still trying to figure out who he was.
He and his friend played two games of pool and then came over to stand at the banister, about three feet from where we were watching the band and the people dancing.
Fairy and I are talking and joking and laughing and the band stops playing and all but the singer bail for a break. The singer stays to play something acoustic, I don't remember what it was, but Fairy was all into it. And about half way through the song, this random chic gets up on stage and takes a mic and starts singing with him. At this point Marty looks over at us and says, "dang, I didn't realize it was karaoke tonight. You girls are next!"
Fairy and I laugh and I have NEVER been more happy to have guys start talking to us before because we were totally hoping they would. More me than Fairy of course, but she was hoping for me so it still counts.
The four of us start joking around and talking which was super easy to do since Marty has a fantastic personality and was hilarious. You could tell that Marty was the outgoing one and Dimples was definitely the shy one. After a few minutes he came around and started talking. Some how, I'm going with miraculously, he and I managed to pair off and went over to the abandoned bar which is just a few feet from the banister and started talking.
We were talking and laughing like two people who had known each other for a very long time and I was still dying to figure out how I knew him. So I asked him how long he'd lived here and he says this is the first time he's been here.
I have to take a second to kind of explain how adorable he is. I know I posted that half a picture I snapped with my camera phone but it doesn't even begin to do him justice. He is probably between six foot and six foot two which makes him quite a bit taller than me. He has these amazing eyes and I know I'm about to sound all Super Cheese here but they freaking smile or twinkle or something. It's nuts. And when he smiles at you with those eyes and his set of adorable double dimples and with this genuine sincerity? Yeah, you're screwed. The best thing and without a doubt one of my most favorite things was when I made him laugh. I really love it when I can make a guy laugh.
He is a chemical engineer and a software developer and ridiculously smart. At one point later in the night we were talking about genius and I asked him if he was a genius and he said, "Kate, I don't really think it matters. Some tests put me there but you know, it doesn't really matter how smart you are if you can't talk to people. Look at Einstein. He discovered Relativity! But if he hadn't been able to tell anyone about it, would it have even mattered?"
I cannot remember a time, if there ever even was one, where I connected with someone so immediately and so smoothly. I just felt like I knew him and he was giving me the same vibe. It was new. Everything just felt so real. Which of course made it feel surreal.
Before I knew it Fairy's new BF was there to get her and I was heading back to the first bar with Marty and Dimples, it was probably about 11pm by then. Dimples and I went outside and stood there looking at the stars and talking until 2am.
During this time, we got physically closer but he didn't make any moves on me. We were just standing close enough to one another to be touching pretty much the whole time and when we were talking, he'd touch my arms or my back or whatever. So I was thinking, this is going well.
When the bar closed up and they sent us packing, they invited me to follow them back to the cabin that they were staying at which was like three miles from my house. I followed them there and the three of us sat downstairs for about an hour talking with Dimples and I snuggled up on the couch with a blanket (because it was effing cold last night here). At about 3am after Dimples had to call my cell phone because it was lost in the bowels of the couch, Marty went upstairs to the bedroom and left the two of us alone downstairs. I kept expecting him to put the moves on me but instead I was sitting on his right and he just kind of pulled me closer and the two of us laid on the couch with his head on my chest talking until about four thirty or five.
(ps. I'm too old to stay up all night)
At one point, he was telling me a story and at the end of it, he looked over at me and he said, "You know, it's a little unnerving that I am sitting here telling you all of these things about me." He started ticking all of this personal stuff off, listing all of the random things he'd told me. I laughed and told him, "oh, I wouldn't worry about it. It might be unnerving right now, but tomorrow when you drive back to Houston, I'll just be some girl in MyTown and it won't seem so bad." He looked me dead in the eye and said, "it probably won't be as unnerving tomorrow, but you won't just be some girl from MyTown."
About five, he scooted up to the top of the couch so that I was laying in the crook of his arm on my back and he was on his side with his head above mine. We were starting to get too tired to talk any more. We're laying there all entangled quietly and I said, "I feel like I should mention that this isn't usually how I spend my Saturday nights." He chuckled and said, "I think this is new to both of us."
We laid there quietly a little while longer and I was starting to get afriad that he wasn't going to ever kiss me and people, we might not have been fooling around but we were definitely comfortable enough all entwined on the couch for me get a kiss. And I wanted one.
So I asked him, "would it be horribly inappropriate for me to kiss you?" And he says, "Can you define inappropriate?" and I said, "No fair, my question was easier." He didn't say anything for a few moments and then he said, "Well I guess it depends on if someone would be upset if you kissed me." It sounded to me like he was trying to ask if I was seeing anyone, which I am freaking not. So I thought about it for a second and then said, "you know, I think my grandmother would probably be upset if she knew I was kissing this guy I had just met." This got another chuckle from him and his hand, which was on my back, went from outside of my shirt to inside and he is just slowly caressing my back and neck and lower back and the two of us are turning a little more to face each other and it is dark so I couldn't see him at all.
When we finally got close enough to kiss, he drew it out for a glorious amount of time, just barely brushing my lips with his lips and then coming back and doing it again, and then just a little tiny flick of his tongue and then to my neck and then back. It was probably a couple of minutes before I was actually kissed but goddamn it, it was totally worth the build up.
After we made out for a few minutes, he pulled me in really closer and we were back to being entwined and snuggled up together and that was it. I think I've heard of these mythical creatures who wait to have sex, I just haven't ever encountered one before.
This was about six o'clock and we both started to doze in and out. And you know when you meet someone and you just don't want to sleep? You know it will be over in the morning and you don't want to miss any of it but you fall asleep any way because geez, you've been awake since 6am the day before.
He snores, so I woke up often which I was strangely grateful for because it gave me time to just lay there with him and think about it all. And it was during all of that thinking that I started to feel guilty because I hadn't said anything about the girls the whole time. Now, truthfully, if I am picking up a dude in a bar, I don't talk about my kids. Why would I? I'm not going to see them again. But this guy? I want to see him again. God I want to see him again. But he was going back to Houston today and granted Houston is only four hours, not the other effing side of the country or anything but still four hours isn't convenient and even if he did want to come back and see me, he doesn't know about the girls which is pretty much the biggest deal ever. I've suffered rejection before because I already have the kids and the family and I am totally ok with that. I love them, they are my life and I've said it before, if being alone is the price I pay for having these amazing daughters, I gladly accept the charges. But you can't help but get a little hopeful before you disclose the information. You can't help but hope that this guy is the guy who is going to still want to be with you.
So I am laying there thinking about all of this and thinking about how much I don't want to leave but knowing I really do need to. At about seven thirty, I started to sit up and he pulled me right back down with him and in even closer and that was just about all of the convincing I needed to stay put for a little while longer but at eight I had to get up. My kids were going to be getting up and I don't like to roll in all post bar at nine in the morning in front of them. He was asleep so I managed to slip off the couch and sit on the other end before he knew it. He all rubbed his adorable sleepy eyes and laid there looking at me. He just looks at me. I can't explain it, but it's like he is looking at me. And I find I am the one breaking the look because it's too much for me. I want to grab him and kiss him and say things I'm not sure I mean yet.
We sat there for a few minutes just looking at each other and then I finally said, "I've got to go." He said ok and then we got side tracked and started talking again for like another thirty minutes. During this time, both of us got our shoes on and he walked me out to my car. I put my stuff in the back seat and leaned against the car and looked at him and he does it again. Just looks right into my eyes and doesn't say anything. For at least a minute until I break and step forward and give him a hug. He smoothed my hair down and said, "I had a really great time last night." I said I had as well and he said, "I'm really glad to have met you." I said I was too and then he said, "you have my phone number and I have yours." I said, "yup" and told him to be careful on his way home today. He stood out there while I made this awkward three point turn to get out of the strangely shaped parking area and then right before I pulled out into the road, I smiled and waved and he did too.
Labels: Being a Chic, my crazy life, My pathetic excuse for a love life
