I went with a friend to a bar I'd never been to before. It was very low-key for a Saturday night, and we were having a great time. A song came on the radio that my friend and I both knew, but we couldn't think of the name of the band. I turned to my left and asked the guy sitting there who it was. He knew the answer (score one point). And that's how the conversation started.
It was never my intention to "pick up" this guy; but my friend was off talking to some people we knew, this guy to my left was by himself, so it was only natural that we speak to each other. We exchanged pleasantries. He told me that he works for a company that does consulting for hospitals (what I heard was that he has a job with benefits and the potential for upward movement). Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that this guy was a hipster (wearing the fitted jeans, sneakers, open collared shirt, and yes, tattoos. Needless to say, I thought I may have unsuspectingly found that perfect mesh of qualities and characteristics that I've been looking for. Anyway, the fact that his shirt collar was open is important, because it revealed a tattoo that he had on his chest. So, naturally, I asked what his tattoo was (I may or may not have put my hand in his shirt and touched his tattoo when asking this). He told me I would laugh if he told me. I said he was probably right. So he told me that it was of the tree of Gondor and seven stars of something from the Lord of the Rings. He loves the books so much that he had it permanently inked on his body. I mean, it wouldn't have been my first choice, but he liked it, and I wasn't going to make fun of him (too much) for it.
It was getting late and time to go. I was not going to volunteer my number to this guy, but I didn't have to. He asked for it and told me he would call me. And you know what? He actually did call me. And we talked for about thirty minutes, he said he would call me the next day or the day after, and when when we hung up, he texted me a winky face. Things were looking good. Two days passed, and I hadn't heard from him. But the night of that second day, he texted me and said that he hadn't forgotten about me, that he was really sick, and if it'd be all right if he called me sometime soon. To me, this meant that he was an attentive guy or just giving me an excuse and I'd never hear from him again. Well, a whole week passed, and I had pretty much decided that he wasn't going to call. But, he called and, again, we had a pleasant conversation. I mean, he made me laugh, I made him laugh. It was good. He asked me what I was doing the weekend, and we set up a time to meet up on Sunday.
We met at the park. Maybe not the best idea because it was 95 degrees out. At any rate, I saw him, and he was as good looking as I remembered (which is not always the case). We walked around and chatted about lots of things: work, church, family--all of the "get to know" things. I figured he liked me because we had chatted on the phone a few times. Then the red flags started popping up. He talked about his ex-girlfriend too much. He told me that he's just as happy playing video games (I should've walked away right then) as he was going to a party. He was TEXTING while we were hanging out. Then he started thinking out loud about the things he was going to do for the rest of the day... and he really wasn't inviting me to join him. He walked me to my car and told me that I was welcome to come get yogurt with him. He said he was going regardless. That makes a girl feel really special and nothing like a tag along. But he also said that we'd definitely be "doing this again," so if I didn't want yogurt it was no big deal. Depsite my better judgment, I went to get yogurt--I even drove because we at my car by then. We got yogurt, and we paid separately. Once we were finished, we got the heck out of there, and I dropped him off at his car. He said again that we'd do it again soon. I never heard from him again.
Here's the thing. When I think about our "date," I think to myself that it didn't really feel like a date. I mean, we got along, laughed at each other, and conversation was easy. But he wasn't flirty. I did all of the complimenting. For example, I told him I liked his purple shoes, and he proceeded to tell me all of the colors of shoes he had (and I think he may have more shoes than me, which is another red flag, maybe). You know, I'm not mad or sad about the situation. And I'm not even wondering why he didn't call. I'm just wondering why he would've said TWICE that we'd hang out again, and then he doesn't followup. Despite the red flags, I would've gone out with him again. Why? Because he was funny, had a (good) job, was wearing skinny jeans, purple converse, and had that damn tattoo.
So, what DID I learn? I'm attracted to tattoos. However, all tattoos are not created equal. Some are cool and sexy--this I know for sure. Some are not--this I know now. I have never read Lord of the Rings, and when a guy expresses his love for J.R.R. Tolkien by permanently labeling his body with a fictional tree and can only show it off by keeping the buttons on his shirt unbuttoned a point where you wonder if you're going to see navel, get up from the bar and find your friend. Something is amiss with that siutation, and we don't need to waste our time finding out what it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment