A new kind of double date

So....a couple weeks ago, K made a profile for me on an online dating website. She made it because I don't have a lot of luck finding men that don't repulse me or piss me off and she thought I would have better luck if she screened men for me. The profile makes it clear that she is screening them before they even have a chance at talking to me and that I don't drink (yes, I do have to point this out). I reluctantly agreed to let her go through with it because I was certain that the internet guys would show her just how little hope there is.
I should note that I do not think that it's hopeless. I do not believe that I will be alone forever. I just know that right now I'm not finding what I want at all, so I see no point in looking. Things will line up when they're right.
One of very few guys that actually happened to read the stupid thing sent a message and said he thought we had a lot in common and told K to let me look at his profile and send him a message if I agreed.
I looked.
I agreed.
I messaged.


We sent a few e-mails back and forth. All full of conversation. This guy had a brain and his pictures were fun and he seemed like a decent enough guy. Not at all the typical online pervert I've run into before. He gave me his number. We sent some texts back and forth and set a date for Friday night. Cheesecake factory followed by bowling. Fun. Good. I like it. I find it sad that I think it's so awesome that a guy would set and plan a date out. I think it's awesome because I don't know how many guys have asked me out but then want me to plan out the day, time and place. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I feel like if a guy asks me out he can plan the date. I mean obviously I'll help decide and time and day. But is it really so hard to just pick a place?
I started to get excited. This was the first potential that actually had potential in a while (aside from my not date-date with R who of course finally decides to text me on the one day I have a date) and I had an actual date for once. And not with my mom or L.
K was really excited for me too. She seems to get more excited about my dating life than I do.
After work, I headed home even though I wanted to head straight to the date. I had some leftover pizza and cake from the office (Happy B-day JB!) and I didn't want to let it sit in my car all evening so I headed home. I got out of my car, juggling the pizza, cake, my purse, gloves, and the keys to get in. For some reason I decided to check the mail before going inside. And of course had to add another something to carry to my already full arms.
"Aye girl"
Oh boy....it's shirtless crackhead. He has a shirt on this time. That's a good change.
He's walking towards me with a big garbage bag in his hands. The big white see through-ish kind they use in hotels and for cleaning services and such. He starts rummaging a hand through the bag and looks at me.
"I work at this store and uh...(rummage rummage) I got some shoes here"
He pulls out a few different, brand new pairs of shoes. Well, we all know I like shoes so I asked what size he had.
"My girl wears a 7 and uh...what size do you need?"
Well if they're all that small then they're no good for me. He had brand new Converse, some BeBe flats, more Converse...
A store huh? You want me to believe you work in a store that lets you bring home bags full of shoes that you are now trying to sell to me for 20 bucks a pop? I think not. Thieves R Us is not a store sir.
I tell him the shoes would fit my roommate before they would ever fit me and he took that to mean that my roommate wanted some shoes.
"Why don't you take a pair in and see if she wants em?"
Uh....she's not home right now (WHY WOULD I SAY THAT TO HIM?!).
"Oh, well why don't you buy her a pair then?"
Do you know that Christmas is over man? I'm not gonna buy your shoes man. I offered him the cake instead.
"Really? Yea! Alright. Yea. Cool man. That's awesome."
Have some pizza too. Why not. I don't need it.
"Aw yes! Sweet. That's so nice of you. Thank you girl. God bless."
And then he walked away.
I text C as soon as I got into the house and locked the door behind me, of course. She tells me he tried to sell her CD's one morning. Yep, Thieves R Us alright.
I put away everything I had, double checked my makeup and made sure I was still happy with my clothes and then headed out to the Cheesecake Factory.
I was worried about traffic since it was rush hour but things seemed to be moving smoothly. Before I could get very far, my date was texting me to ask that I let him know when I'm about 15 minutes away. Sure thing. Got it.
Drive drive drive
Text: Are you close?
Response: er...Just crossing the bridge now :)
Text: What does that mean?
Uhhh...
Response: 20 minutes, if I hit traffic.
Text: Well let me know when you're about 15 minutes away.
Isn't that basically what I just said? By this time I'm actually pulling into the parking lot for the mall, which I text to him.
He was trying to time the wait for a table. He got there around 6 and we were supposed to meet at 6:30. When he got there the wait time was 15 minutes. See his thought process? I was 10 minutes late, but I was updating him the whole time with texts, because he kept texting me to see where I was.
I finally parked and started walking to the restaurant. I was reaching for the door when he yelled to me. Waiting outside in cold. Weird...
I could tell that he was the same guy from the pictures...but at the same time...he didn't look quite like I thought. He was super duper tall and of course, planning for bowling, I wore flats making him seem even more tall.
He had just put his name on the list and the wait time was now at 40 minutes. Probably could have just put his name on the list earlier...but whatev.
We decided to walk around the mall until the buzzer went off. It felt awkward. We had talked so easily through e-mail but in person...I mean I'm sure there was nervousness playing a factor and all...but he just seemed so....I hate to say this...dweeby. He reminded me a few people in my life that I just can't imagine dating. Bad sign probably. Plus, he was so tall that he literally had to bend down to hear me talk. If I said something and he wasn't ready then he couldn't hear me. Everywhere we went he asked about clothes and colors. I had told him about my stylist dream and that seemed to be the main focus of his conversation. Though he did keep checking a timer on his phone to find out how much longer we should be expecting to wait. Yes, he set a timer on his phone even though we had a buzzer.
"I would never wear that red shirt up there. It's too loud."
It's a red shirt...I mean it has a logo on it...but it's just red. What's the big deal? I mean, unless you're a crip....
We walked and walked and kind of talked. Suddenly I heard someone yell my name behind us.
There was T, my co-worker, at his second job that I totally forgot about him having. He had run out the door to get my attention and I ran right up to him basically leaving my date. I was so relieved to see someone that I knew! I don't think I've ever been that excited to see him. He had such a huge smile on his face. Then I realized my date had followed. T took the liberty of introducing himself.
"Hi! I'm T, I work with Kay."
Handshake and confused look from my date.
"I thought you worked..."
T chimed in immediately. "At her job! This is my other job. Haha!"
Well...that was fun. Time to leave I think. It's getting awkward with my date just standing there and all. We keep walking. Only to find out it's a dead end. We turn around and I try to get us to walk on the other side of the kiosks so that we didn't have to walk right back in front of T's store. But apparently my date didn't like that idea. As we passed I peeked in to see what T was up to....Sure enough he was already on the phone and still wearing that crazy big smile. He was clearly talking to someone about what just happened. I'm guessing he called boss lady. Awesometastic. I had to laugh. It was all so funny. I waved. He waved back. When I looked at my date, he was waving too. Oh boy.
We walked back to the restaurant while I told my date who I figured T was calling. Almost as soon as we sat down to wait our buzzer went off and it was time for us to sit down to eat. Finally.
We get a small table between two larger tables and I feel like this first date is on display. We sit and I watch the people and look at the decor. For some reason the conversation just isn't flowing. We talked a little...but not much. There were children everywhere. One on each side of me and some behind our table. I watched the one to my left get rewarded for being good with a hand held video game to play with. She was a tiny child. I know I wasn't playing video games that young. So strange to watch norms like that change.
I watched the bus boys clear and set tables Nascar pit crew style. Talent!
At one point my date took a bathroom break and I took the opportunity to text K who told me K2 had invited R over, telling him I was coming over later even though that was never a plan and I should come over if my date wasn't going well. I also had a nice conversation with the parents of the gamer baby. The mom told me how alike we are. Similar haircuts, even though her bangs were pinned up, similar taste in food (good freakin GOD that chicken was amazing! I ate all my veggies, just so you know) and apparently have similar colored houses. Date came back and all was quiet again.
He pulled out his phone to look at the time.
"Well, it's getting pretty late. It's 8. Friday night...the bowling alley will be packed."
I see he's trying to get out of this gracefully. I can make this easy.
"Bowling another time then" I say with a smile on my face.
He walks me outside (I forgot my leftovers on the table. Big sad face because seriously...that chicken was amazing and there was so much left. Damn damn damn) and there's another awkward moment when it looks like he might go for a hug but then decides against it.
"I might go back in and see if there's anything I want to buy" he tells me as he heads back towards the mall.
Uh...ok. Sure.
I walked back to my car smiling. Sure, it didn't go great, but he wasn't a total creeper and it could have gone a lot worse. Plus now I could go to K's.
I text her as soon as I was in my car and she let me know that R wasn't getting back to K2 so he might not be coming over after all. That's ok with me. I still wanted to hang out and they were ok with that so I headed their way. When I got about half way there I thought it might be a good idea to text R myself. When he had text me earlier in the day and asked if I had plans I told him I did. But now that things ended so early...I had free time. So I texted him and told him I was heading to K and K2's to hang out since my plans ended earlier than expected and he text back right away. We agreed to meet at K's. Not minutes after I sent him a message (I found this out later of course) he finally texted K2 back to tell him he would be on his way over soon.
Now I was really excited. R is super cute you guys. I made it there before him so me and the K's talked about him for a minute. We deciphered texts and laughed a lot. It's funny how other people can be so into my love life.
R got there, with beer to share with K2 and we all just hung out. We played with a mood app on R's phone. K and I talked about her clothes and planned the next day of shopping while R and K2 talked about snowboarding and biking and other sport related things.
R told us about how he broke his nose and pulled a muscle in his stomach and we all played with the cat who is a psycho. In the bast way.
K started texting me, nudging me to indulge in her plans. She suggested a movie but we would have to go rent it. She wanted me to offer to drive and then she would feign sickness so she could stay behind thus forcing R to go with me. She is so silly.
Then K2 started texting me. I'm going to blame his actions on the beer. He told me I should make a move and that a guy will never turn down a lay.
Nice. Thanks.
I told him I wasn't just out to get some booty and why can't they just let me do my own thing? He kept basically saying the same thing over and over and it was getting ridiculous. I mean, the guys nose is broken and he has a pulled muscle. Oh and did you ever wonder how awkward it would be to make a move in a tiny studio apartment with your friends staring right at you? It's like we're a science experiment.
Eventually R needed to call it a night because he had to get up early for work the next day. I decided to take off too...not just to have an extra minute or two with R. He almost left his phone on the windowsill and when I pointed it out to him he let me know that if he had left it behind it would have been my fault, grinning at me.
Did I mention how cute he is?
We walked outside together and made small talk. No, there was no hug or kiss or anything. And of course as soon as I got in my car there was a text from K, who I figured was watching.
"What?! No kiss? hug? nothing?!"
Calm down woman!
R and I decided we needed to hang out again, without our chaperons.