A Story in Two Parts (Part I)

October 14, 2008 10:08 PM

'm going to tell you guys a story, and I'd love it if you could let me know what you think. Specifically, I'm going to ask you a question at the end, and I'd like your reasoned answers to it. If you want to make fun of me and stuff, that's fine, too, but at least be creative about it. If you already know how this story plays out, please don't ruin the ending. Cool?

Ok, here's the story.

I was introduced to a girl--let's call her Emily--by a mutual friend, The Reeg. The first time we met, we went to a gay bar, I was extremely funny and charming (and half naked, but that's a different story) and Emily bought me a drink. Then we went back to our friend's place and hung out for a bit. We left at the same time and, on the walk to our cars, I suggested we get some food. So we did, and we went to Perkin's, where we stayed until, like, 4am. Because I am an idiot, however, I did not get her number.

Sometime during the next couple of weeks, The Reeg and Emily ran into each other at a bar and, at some point, Emily asked The Reeg about me. I'm not really sure what she said, but she asked, you know, what I was about or something like that. The Reeg told me because, well, pretty much everyone was rooting for me on this one. And I thought it was sort of interesting that Emily asked about me.

A few weeks after that, a bunch of us were out again, and Emily ended up meeting up with us. There was this guy with her that was all over her, so I was sort of discouraged. But then I talked to The Reeg, who told me that the guy was a coworker of Emily's and that he was a douche and she didn't really like him but couldn't be rude because of the whole coworker thing.

Eventually, we ditched that guy and headed back to our friend's place. And we all hung out for a little while, then Emily got up to leave. As she was getting ready to go, I asked her for her number, and she gave it to me.

A few days later, I texted her to see if she wanted to do something. I didn't hear back. Not discouraged, I tried again. Nothing. Until a few days later, when she texted back, apologized, explained that she'd been busy, and said she'd make it up to me that night if I was free. I was free, so we went to the Terrace and had a few drinks.

For the first time in my life, I got a glimpse of what it might be like for other people to deal with me. This girl wasn't afraid to speak her mind, even if things might come across as mean or downright hurtful. And she totally knew how to push someone's buttons. I was intrigued, but also sort of intimidated. Still, I think I held my own.

We both had to work the next morning, so we called it an early night. I walked her to her car and made some joke about wanting to see her topless. You'll have to take my word for it when I say that such a comment was totally appropriate given the conversation and what I thought to be her sense of humor. When we got to her car, she hugged me and told me to call her.

So a few days later, I called her. We agreed that we wanted to get together again, so we set out to plan it out. As it turned out, the next few weeks were hectic for both of us, but we decided that we could have dinner on the Thursday of that week between 6 and 8. On Thursday afternoon, I got a text from her at 5. She said she was stuck in a meeting at her new job and that she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it. I texted back that it was cool, and that she should let me know what was up. About half an hour later, I got another text. She told me she was still there and that she was sorry and that hopefully we could reschedule. I responded that she should call me when she was done and we could work something out. At 6, she called me. She was on a break from her meeting and we sort of talked a little.

She said she didn't want to be at the meeting anymore because she wasn't getting anything out of it. I said she should just get up and leave. She said that doing that would make her seem like a bitch. I said that she was a bitch and that her coworkers would realize that soon enough, so she might as well get it out there and get the fuck out of this meeting. She said I had a good point. Then she went back to her meeting.

At 6:30, she called and told me that she had taken my advice and left the meeting. We talked about when we could get together, and it turned out that we were both busy that weekend and she was out of town for work Monday through Wednesday of the following week, so Thursday would be the first opportunity. So we made plans for that Thursday.

On Monday, I texted her. I knew she'd be out of town, so I just wanted to say hello. She texted back, and I replied. And then she called, which I had not been expecting since she had said at the Terrace that she wasn't a chatter and hated being on the phone. She explained that she was going to text back, but got lazy and just called. We spoke on the phone for almost an hour. She said that she was really excited to get together on Thursday and that she wanted to do something "fun." We also talked about various other things we could do together.

I took all of this as a good sign, but, having learned from previous experiences, I tried very hard to keep myself from getting all excited. I talked it over with various people, and got the green light to be moderately excited. I adopted that posture.

Thursday rolled around. I made reservations for a moderately nice restaurant. After some initial confusion about what we wanted to do, we got to the restaurant and ate and whatever. Dinner was fun and things went really well. I was totally hilarious and entertaining. Her mannerisms and laughter confirmed this, I think. About three-quarters of the way through dinner, she started looking sort of out of it, though. I asked what was up, and she said she was just getting a headache. We had dessert and then got the check. I paid. She made no attempt to cover her part of the meal or whatever.

We went outside and hung out while she had a cigarette. Then we got in my car and I started to drive her home. I told her that if her headache was bad, I could just drop her off and we could hang out later. She said that she wanted to go ahead with our plans, which were to watch an Obama speech at her place. But when we got to her parking lot, she said "hey, would it be really lame if I just went home and went to bed? I feel really bad about doing it, but my head really hurts and I honestly feel like throwing up and I'm just not going to be any fun right now." And I said that was fine, and she said "I'll make it up to you. I'm really sorry. When are you free next week?" And I looked at my calendar (yeah, ok, that's lame. But whatever, fuck you) and asked when she had in mind. She said "How about Friday? That way we can go out and do whatever and not have to worry about being up early for work so we can do something fun and really go out." And that sounded great to me, so I said I was free on Friday. And we made plans for Friday.

Then I said that if she really wanted to make things up to me, she should kiss me. So she smiled and leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. I was sort of put off by the whole cheek thing, but I figured that I wouldn't want to make out with someone if my head hurt so much that I wanted to throw up, so I didn't think much of it.

So that's the end of Part I. Now here's the question: at this stage, based on what I've told you, and without speculating about what might happen in Part II, does this girl like me? Does she like me a little, a lot, or not at all? What do you all think?

10 Comments

butterflyfish said:

A little -- you convey her as confident and forward, not shy and awkward. If she liked you more than a little you'd have gotten at least a lip peck, headache or no. But she likes you -- I've seen many a girl blow off text messages if they're not interested at all. I'm getting the 'I kinda like this guy but maybe have someone else I kinda like too' vibe here.

October 15, 2008 7:39 AM

morenonesense said:

you don't really want to know what i think.

October 15, 2008 4:41 PM

Jessie said:

It sounds like she doesn't like you, not even from the start but didn't want to hurt your feelings.

October 15, 2008 6:39 PM

Lauren said:

Please tell me this doesn't end with a body under some creepy guy's house.

October 15, 2008 6:50 PM

Ismael Tapia II said:

Butterflyfish,
That's fair. We'll see what you have to say after Part II.

Morenononsense,
I don't know what you're going to say, exactly, but fuck you.

Jessie,
I think you're new around here. Welcome. In any event, why do you think that?

Lauren,
Where the fuck did that come from?

October 15, 2008 7:48 PM

Who? said:

I know you too well. You remind me of old friends. I find it hard to accept your read of her responses. Also, I don't think you'd be telling this story if it wasn't going to end like a train wreck.

October 15, 2008 9:28 PM

d=mc2 said:

I think she totally wanted to jump your bones but decided to go home and masterbate instead so she didn't come across as too much of a slut. Kissing you might have made her cum right there and then.

You know what I was really thinking at the time but I will keep that private.

Shes still a slut for taking her panties off and slipping them into your glove box.

October 15, 2008 10:14 PM

Valerie said:

You already know what i think. But here's my obligatory comment -- most people are assholes most of the time. Or is it some people are assholes most of the time? or most people are assholes some of the time? whatever the case may be, you get my point. I tend to go with most people, most of the time, but then again, i am a pessimist.

October 16, 2008 5:19 PM

Ismael Tapia II said:

Oops, I accidentally deleted one of the comments while clearing off some spam. It was by some guy I don't know, and his input was that she didn't like me at all and wouldn't even say hello to me if we walked past each other in the hall.

If you're out there, mystery poster, feel free to post again. Sorry about deleting your thing.

October 16, 2008 9:34 PM

Who? said:

Never mind. I think I have to go with what Mr. d=mc2 said.

October 20, 2008 7:12 PM

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.