We were all chatting, and I was telling my cousin about my recent dating tragedies - the unfortunate live tweeting of the last date, and the man with the penchant for hair pieces. I was saying that it felt near impossible to get dates in London, the normal way (what is the normal way), which was why I was doing online dating. In real life, in bars, wherever, I just don't get asked out, ever, I was telling her.
"I'll take you out." Said hot man.
I laughed - yeah right.
"No seriously, give me your number, we'll go out."
*angels sing*
And this is how I met Spencer. He had only moved to London 3 weeks prior to this, and was genuine in his wanting a date with me. He wanted to get to know London - and have someone to do it with, I suppose. That someone could be me!
We spent the rest of the evening chatting, mildly flirting, and when we all walked back to the tube we hung back and walked together. So cute, so teenage-y. I was loving it. Actual male attention from someone outside of the internets! I'm not a loser! I'm vaguely nice to speak to in real life! Other dramatic statements!
A few days later, I got a text from him, asking if I wanted to go on that date? Hell yes. Spencer was hot. Sort of rugby-type (not huge and muscley, but nicely built), light brown hair, funny, from Bristol (ie good accent), worked in finance. CHING. I joke, I joke. I would have actually preferred if he had a more creative profession(he wasn't creative in the slightest) but then I always go for creatives and they're all jerks. This is me trying a new approach, remember?
As he hadn't been in London very long, he said I should pick where to go as he hadn't a clue. Now, I usually prefer if the guy picks, at least on the first few dates, because, being a tad old fashioned, I like to be impressed. Plus you can tell a lot from someone by their date choices. But, I forgave him, because I remember what it was like to be new to London. I suggested the Southbank, as it's one of my favourite places, and you can't go wrong with the choice of restaurants there.
This is another thing - I think I've mentioned before that I don't like having a meal on the first date. But, because I'd already met him, and really fancied him, this felt fine. Strange, I thought. But good. We ended up going to Strada - we both liked Italian and it's a good location, right by the bridge.
We had to hang around for a table for a while, being a weekend, but it was still warm at this point, and we had an outside table. It was a really good date. The right amount of awkward, I felt relaxed but also was really in to him.
The one thing I'd say was that conversation wasn't as in depth as it had been with Mylifeyourhands for example - but perhaps he was nervous. I like to have random, or quite deep discussions on dates, but this felt like we were kind of just skirting the surface. Not exactly lots of awkward silences, but we weren't stumbling over each other to speak. Perhaps I analyse this too much though; as has been proven, great conversation and interesting anecdotes do not a great date always make.
After dinner we walked down the Southbank, over Westminster bridge and found ourselves a lovely cosy pub to continue the chat. It was a really good first date, and I loved that I'd met him offline, as it were - such a rarity nowadays. It was nice getting to know him from scratch. He'd graduated the year after me, was enjoying his job although wasn't exactly what he wanted to do (he didn't know what he wanted to do), he was living in Balham, commuting out to Epsom - slightly annoying for dating in central London but nothing major. He'd been travelling and had some great stories, and he seemed to be enjoying London. I liked telling him about what I do; he seemed genuinely interested even though he didn't really 'get' graphic design etc.
All through the date I was thinking, yep, definitely going to kiss you at the end. Definitely. No two ways about it, I really fancied him. And amazing that I was even considering it - all my other dates I'd been on, ever, I was never that bothered. Or just plain wasn't attracted to them by the end of the date so didn't want to. And we did, and it was perfect. Everything you want a first date kiss to be. I was grinning from ear to ear on the train home, was actually so happy! I texted my best friend and told her the news, hoping and hoping that he'd want to see me again. Maybe, for once, this was actually going to go somewhere...?
No comments:
Post a Comment