A Date To Remember

I am so sorry to keep you guys on the edge of your seats all weekend, but a busy schedule superseded writing this post.

So! Down to business. As I said before, Thursday was the "big day," or date, so to speak. I wrote that as I was getting ready, thinking Mason Stanley would be ready around 8. At 7:40 he texted to say he was ready and leaving in a few minutes. Slightly panicked (totally not ready yet, new shirt I was going to wear wrinkled and in the dryer [right], etc), I said to text me when he left; that way I'd be prepared when he got here, right?

So I continue getting ready, phone on vibrate (I'm an idiot sometimes). I hear the doorbell ring, and ask my roommate to get the door; definitely not my plan. She lets him in and I stand in my room, trying to figure out how I'm going to walk downstairs, say hi to him, grab my shirt, and put it on without it being awkward. So I just sort of go for it. Say hi, run back upstairs, put it on, and I'm good to go. (4 minutes my ass!)

We take off to dinner in his car, which apparently is a big deal because he's never usually the one to drive when he goes out with his friends. We get to the restaurant, which is a family-owned type of local Italian place, very cute. We pick a table and order and start talking. We review our conversation from our first meeting, most of which he didn't recall. We talk about our families and friends. One of the waiters comes over and brings us a pink shot that we all take together. We trade our accounts of trying out for Parental Control on MTV (which we were both on), and he convinces me to tell him the "craziest thing I've ever done," which they made me describe on the show, though I'm not sure it made it into the episode. He says, "that's it? Boooring..." So, naturally, I call him out; "I'm sorry that I don't 'sleep with more guys than is safe or reasonable,'" which is a line from his Myspace (sub girls for guys). For a brief moment I think I may have actually embarrassed the unembarrassable (self-professed) but he recovers smoothly and explains that it's a quote from one of his favorite authors; I guess it. "Tucker Max?" The conversation continues, as we figure out we're both fans, and through one of his friends that knows him we should be able to hang out with him soon. (Future plans? Check.)

We eat and drink our beers and take off when we realize the place is closing. I had thought he had come up with a whole plan (my guess was bowling), but once we walked out he didn't know what we should do. One of us suggested the Hookah place a few doors down and we went in to get one. I've been there before and it was pretty cool, but for some reason it just seemed really sketchy and weird, and there weren't any couches left. We looked at each other and decided unanimously to try something else. We hop in the car and he starts driving towards a club a little ways away but second guesses himself. He asks if I want to go bowling, which I did.

He buys two games and assures me that they won't make me wear the rental shoes (ay yay yay). He helps me pick out my ball (since I'm A. very weak and need a very light ball and B. adult size and my fingers don't fit in the child sizes), and after throwing one a security guy walks up and tells me I need shoes, so we go get some and get back to our game. He gave me some good pointers, which helped a few times, but for the most part I.... decided to let him win. Don't want to throw off his male ego, ya know? Ha. We both seem to relax a bit while we're playing, and start being more goofy. He was being flirty, and would find reasons to nudge me or touch my arm every time we passed each other, which was cute.

After the second game we get back in the car and start driving, to nowhere in particular, he says. We end up in Dana Point, and he drives up on a cliff along the ocean. He says he's going to show me a gazebo he likes to hang out at. Again, I call him out; "Oh, is this the move you pull on all the girls?" He says no, and we end up just driving by it. I laugh and we head back in the direction we came from.

We drive by a bar that we both realized we go to a lot, and he suggests we go there, but then says we shouldn't because he knows so many people there. Is he afraid of people seeing him with me? Really? It occurs to him how it sounded and he tries to explain that he doesn't want to be distracted by other people. Good answer.

We end up in the next town by the water and at the same bar but a different location. As we walk in he runs into a pretty blonde girl that he introduces me to immediately, and she's really excited to see him. He tells me they went to prom together after he met her at the restaurant he worked at a week before her prom. We sit at the bar and order some drinks, and I open a tab. We talk for awhile and decide to sit outside and chat after getting another drink.

We sit outside talking, and discuss work and a lot of deeper topics that we hadn't really touched on so far in the evening. Up until that point the conversation was really good but seemed very surface level, and it seemed like we both opened up a little bit at that point. One thing I really like about talking to him is that he makes really good eye contact the whole time and I get the impression that he's listening really intently. We find that we've had a lot of similar experiences and it seems like we're connecting. He tells me he knows the owner of a salon that's really well known and will take me to the next event they have there. (More future plans? Check.)

At this point I'm a little buzzed (I'm a major lightweight, if I haven't mentioned that already) and we decide its time to head back to my house since I have to work the next day. When we get back to my house, he pulls up to the curb, with the engine running. He asks me if I want him to walk me to the door.

If I have a choice between being dropped off on the sidewalk or actually saying a proper goodbye after spending the evening together, which do you think I'm going to choose?

So, I tell him it's up to him, which is obvious girl-language for "there's only one right answer and I hope you choose wisely," which he figures out. As we're walking to the door I start worrying that wanting him to walk me to the door might look like me "wanting him to walk me to the door," a la that scene from Hitch when he explains that the girl stands in front of the door and fumbles with her keys because she's waiting for the guy to kiss her. I can tell you, at least usually after the first date, trying to make that awkward goodbye on the front stoop into a notable first kiss almost never works out the way its supposed to. Plus, (not to steal his thunder, but it's the truth) it's totally forced. Anyway. So we're walking towards my door and I'm really hoping he doesn't think I want him to walk me up there so we can have that awkward first-date kiss in front of the door, and then I'm thinking maybe I should have just gotten out of the car. Ugh.

So we get there, and he gives me a big hug and tells me he had a really good time, which is actually a little surprising coming from him, because he's mostly on the more sarcastic/dry side. I agree and we talk about how we'll hang out again. Then he goes in for another hug, and as I go to hug him back he sort of leans away, and then I sort of lean away 'cause I'm thinking, what is he doing? Is he trying to kiss me? And we look at each other. And then he sort of leans back in for the hug, and I do too, and then we pull away, and now it's super awkward. And then he says, "whoa, were you trying to kiss me?!"

Omg. No. No I wasn't. And now, as though that little half hug situation weren't awkward enough, now we're on my front stoop arguing about who was trying to kiss who. At least we're both laughing. A lot.

So I open my door and go in as he walks to his car, and I blow him a kiss as he gets in, which makes him smile (cheesy or not).

I get in my house and realize I left my leftovers in the backseat of his car, and I'm actually kind of bummed 'cause they were so good, but I don't want to be the girl that texts the guy the second he leaves. It's so much more satisfying if he texts me after instead.

I go upstairs and go to bed, falling asleep pretty quickly. When I wake up for work I see he texted me soon after he left to say he has my leftovers, but all that means is that now I'll have to hang out with him again. Cute! Oh, and a notable text during that day (because who doesn't love the use of totally tacky pick-up lines at the right moment?): After he said he was really tired, I told him I knew why... because he was running through my mind all day! Yep. Super cheesy. But when that's the point, I like to think it's sort of charming.

He was out of town for the weekend, though we were texting every day. He can sometimes be cute, but also sometimes sarcastic, which I'm into. One without the other, or when they're way out of balance, is never a good recipe for flirting, but he's got both. I love to be sarcastic and feisty, and I get the feeling a lot of the time that people don't get it, or that it scares them away, so it's always nice to find someone who can dish it out and take it too.

Anyway.... he got home yesterday, and asked me today if I had plans for tonight, which I didn't. And we went out again! But that's a story that I'll save for tomorrow. :)

Suffice it to say, things went well.