I was early, so Gilbert hadn't arrived yet. When he pulled up in his white Honda Civic and got out of his car, he looked at me in a way that made me feel beautiful. I was very aware of the way I was standing and of how my hair was blowing in the wind. It was strange and wonderful.
We got our putters and I ended up paying for our games (he totally intended to, but I insisted). He picked the blue ball because he was wearing a blue shirt, and I picked the purple ball on account of my purple shirt. Yes, that was my idea. Yes, I basically made him pick the blue ball. And yes, I did hope the connotation of his ball wouldn't strike him as it struck me. Oh my......
So this guy is a golfer. He knows what he's doing. But he was very relaxed about the whole thing, allowing me to retry horrible shots and ignoring the five swings it took me to sink a ball that should have been sunk in one. He taught me how to hold my putter, but didn't push his lessons on me. It made me want to actually do it right. There was a group of four ahead of us, so we played every hole twice instead of standing there waiting. Then we took our best score out of both tries as the score to write on the card.
The group ahead of us was part of an even bigger group. A church youth group, as it turns out. They were playing "Epic Golf," which basically was mini golf with a bunch of weird rules for each hole (Hole 4, face backward and putt the ball between your legs; hole 12, hold the club to your head and spin around ten times before putting; hole 17, don't get the ball into the hole - player closest to the hole after 3 strokes gets the least amount of points...). The group was really nice and tried to let us go ahead of them, but there were so many groups doing the same thing, we inevitably had to wait at some point. We talked to them for a bit and they ended up convincing us to try their game for the last three holes. I felt silly. It was fun.
Gilbert complimented me on my shirt. He said I looked cute.
After our game (the score card said we tied, but he totally won) we agreed that the night was not over. We headed back to his area of the city for some drinks and snacks. He brought me to a bar that he used to frequent quite often. We ordered beer and nachos and talked.
We talked about many things, but we eventually began talking about The Site. He asked me how I had come about joining. I got a little anxious, because I was sure he didn't want to know that I am sharing the details of our date, however anonymous I am keeping his identity. I ended up caving just a bit, and fessing up about the fact that my friends are paying for it and that they were the ones who convinced me to join. Then I started gushing about how wonderful they all are, and how nice it is to be able to share stuff like this with them.
We talked about dating many people at once, and how it's no big deal as long as it remains casual. We talked about how interesting The Site is from a sociological perspective, and we talked about some of our strategies and struggles on The Site. I even told him about my first- and second-date outfit method. He applauded me for my ingenuity.
After a couple hours of fairly good conversation he paid the bill and we left the bar. He walked me to my car and asked for a hug. (That's always awkward, when they ask. Really, though, I guess I can't blame them. It'd be worse to just go in for a hug and be denied, right?) I granted him the hug willingly and we parted ways.
Upon reflection, I am comfortable saying that this date was pretty good. I think if he asked me out again, I'd say yes. (For the record, it'd be my first third-date with a man from The Site. That's big). On a scale of one to ten, I'd say Gilbert has moved up from a seven to about an eight. He's pretty alright.
Thing is, though, I got home and had a message waiting for me on my answering machine. It was from Real Life. Oh, I totally like him. He texted me today to tell me about the new puppy he just got. He sent me a picture and everything. I felt earlier on that I was the only one initiating contact, but that's not the case anymore. He has contacted me four individual times just today! He's cute and he's real... and we have physical chemistry, which is more than I can say about Gilbert... so far...
I don't know... They're both great. And I got another message from Five today that was great too. I like them all, I think, and that's strange to me. I feel like I'm lying to each of them when I don't explain that I'm going on dates with other guys. At the same time, I'm still trying to figure out whether there are actually feelings with them, or if I can just see that they're quality. It's one thing to know someone's a great guy; it's another thing entirely to want to kiss that great guy. All things considered, I think so far I'm still leaning towards Real Life as my favourite of the three, but the other two are definitely not out of the game yet.
Wow. That just made me feel dirty, calling it a game. Is that what my love life has become? This is weird........
