hesaidshesaid

I am the “She” referred to in the previous blog entry.

It was a Monday night. February 27th, 2006, to be exact. After work I had a few drinks at my regular watering hole, a hotel lobby bar near the office. If my memory serves me correctly, I was hanging out with the guy He mentioned. It was a pretty tame night. I got home very early. I have the receipt to prove it, the time I cashed out my bar tab was 6:02. So I arrive at home, I changed into some comfy clothes, poured myself a nice stiff vodka-soda, plopped in front of the computer, and began work on a client presentation.

I quickly grew frustrated with work because our remote server was responding incredibly slow. I decided to browse Craigslist while waiting for my files to download. I started out looking for an apartment but soon found myself reading through the personal ads in m4w. I was a little buzzed and feeling a little bold. Just for fun, I decided to reply to some of the ads that struck me as funny, clever, or smart. I wish I could recall exactly what led me there since I had never responded to a personal ad before and it never had occurred to me as an option. My theory is that I was unhappy with said drinking companion. This makes sense because I went home early and alone.

I didn’t have any clue what to expect. I received replies almost instantly from most of these guys. And I think most of them sent pictures. I will just say that it became clear that it was highly unlikely I would meet anyone worth pursuing using this medium. I was bored and had no desire to continue conversing with these pathetic guys I had the misfortune of meeting. For some reason, something compelled me to scroll a little further down the page. I was going to give this one more shot. I was willing to write one more message if I could find the right ad. Voila! I found one ad that was different than anything I had seen all night. I was intrigued and wanted to know more about this person. The person who wrote this was obviously intelligent (it was extremely well-written), was very cynical with a dry sense of humor, and I liked the fact that, like me, he was not yet divorced (it is important to note that both of us were fully separated, no longer living with our spouses). One thing in particular caught my eye, he said he laughed often and it was usually at the expense of others. I liked him because we had some things in common and I was very happy that I did receive an instant response. At least this guy wasn’t some loser sitting home waiting for girls to reply to his post. Or he was smart enough to avoid appearing that way.

I arrived at work the next morning and found a response waiting for me. It was true that I wanted to start dating to make another guy jealous. Apart from that, I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted and I was new to the world of adult dating. I was stepping into unknown territories. I knew I didn’t like being alone.

He included a photo. I didn’t know why someone this attractive was looking online for dates. I figured there must be something wrong with him. It took me a day to respond. I don’t know if I was intimidated, afraid of the unknown, or just insecure. I replied and included a photo of myself. At the time, I did not realize it, but this was just about the worst picture I had of myself. I am still trying to figure that one out since I had literally hundreds of other photos I could have sent.

We met for drinks on Thursday, March 2nd.

He liked my fishnets.

He smoked and drank vodka.

We decided to go on a 2nd date.

-Marla

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