| Dating.... If you haven't had a bad date yet, you will. I been on several dates which borderline as my "worst date ever." The one that my friends like to hear me tell is about Mike. So here it goes, one more time for the kiddos. During the summer of 2000 I lived in Abilene #3706, it was the summer of the girls. All my close girlfriends stayed in town, and happened to live in the same apartment building as I did. My two summer roommates were sorority sisters Kelli and Julie. That summer, we girls made it a ritual to go to Rockin' Rodeo, one of two dance clubs in town, every Wednesday night. Remember that this is Abilene, TX... not too many young, nice guys during the summer.... except the ones named Bubba, wearing overalls with half his teeth missing, and he's not even being considered here for obvious reasons. Well, one Wednesday night, the gang of girls made it out to Rockin' Rodeo like we do every week, and sat at our regular table, like we do every Wednesday, and watch the same old ugly people walk by. This week was different.... and all of us noticed him. :-) At last... a cute guy walked by! We just smiled at each other as he passed, but I kept my eye on him. I was dancing on the floor with an old man named Bubba and was relieved when the honky tonk song ended and I could go sit back with my girlfriends. As I was exiting the floor, this handsom guy met me in the middle and as he took my hand and put his around my waist he asked me to dance. I said "I guess so" since we were already doing the two step around the floor. His name was Mike, he attended one of the other colleges in town and he was a year younger than I. Charming guy.... he spinned me out and in, under and over.... he had me whirling all over that floor. I caught eyes with my girlfriends at the table, whe gave me big thumbs up. When the song ended he asked if he could have another later that evening, I told him that I would look forward to it. Totaly beside myself, I hurried back to my girls and gave them the 411 on the cutie. It was closing in on midnight, and being Abilene, TX that meant the end of the night was coming soon. So just in case he asked for my number I wanted to have it ready so we didn't have to fumble around for a pen and paper. I jotted down my digits on a corner of a napkin, and tucked it into my pocket.... the DJ announced the last dance and I was so distraught because Mike never found me again that night. And just when I had given up looking around for him, here he comes from behind me and we get to dance after all. At the end of the song, the lights came up and we just stood on the floor waiting for the other to say something. He asked if he could give me his number, and with a grin on my face I pulled out my corner of the napkin and handed it to him saying "Why don't I give you mine, and you can call if you ever want to hang out." He was shocked at how forward I was, but gladly took my number and I left the club with my girlfriends ranting and raving about Mike!! Now, the reason I went into so much detail about how we met is so you will understand my expectations for our next date. So far, this guy was the ONLY guy at the club worth talking to (big plus for him) and he was interested in ME! The next night he called and we chatted for a while and he asked me to dinner and then dancing. I was stoked, I have never been taken dancing on a date, only with a group of friends... How Fun! And Mike was a great partner on the floor too. Friday came along, and a carefully picked out what I was going to wear, and got all primped for the night. He came and picked me up, right on schedule, in his vintage ford truck. I have a thing for guys in trucks, especially trucks with character... which this one had plenty of. I could see the road blow past from my the softball size hole in the passenger side floor board. lol, I thought it was great. We went to this mediteranian grill... and the nightmare began. Maybe refering to the evening as a nightmare is harsh... it was more like a bad dream that wouldn't end. At the restaurant, a woman in her 30's was sitting at a table next to us and recognized Mike from ... school? I wouldn't know how they knew each other because he didn't introduce me! I sat there for nearly ten minutes smiling as they had this conversation about grades and soccer and she kept looking at me, wondering who I was I'm sure... but Mike never said a word. I was glad when she let us get back to our dinner, or so I thought. The next 30 minutes were filled with 101 questions. I felt like I was being interviewed, which is a big no no for the first date. He went beyond the point of polite discussion, he asked me what I wanted to name my kids!! At least save that for the second date.. I mean, really. Its not that I wasn't willing to tell him anything he wanted to know.. I think I am open and honest about everything, but it was just the wrong time. After dinner he loaded me back into his truck and took me to the new stadium seating theater. I was a little confused as to why we were going there, but I just sat back and trusted him. Turns out he wanted to "introduce" me to his friends. So we went up to the window and introduced me to the girl and guy behind the glass. Then we went inside where 3 of his guy friends came over to say hello. He introduced me as his girlfriend!! Where I come from, this was a little jumping the gun. Embarassed, I shook their hands and when the guys started talking the girl from the front came back to chat with me.. since Mike had left me standing by myself. She was sweet and asked how long we had been dating. I was glad to inform her that we weren't together, and that this was our first date. She was oddly shocked, and made me wonder. Mike and I left the theater and I was so eager to get to the club. This I knew he couldn't mess up, I was so excited. |
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