Oh God. I Like Him.

I knew she’d do this. She always does it. “Let’s have a girly night”, she says, “it’ll be fun!” she says, yet there I was – propping up a seedy bar with a gin and tonic in one hand, and my phone in the other, while she was seemingly infatuated with a handsome stranger. I don’t know why I thought it would be different, but hey ho, here we are. Jessica loved the attention and it was no secret as to why, she was beautiful and she bloody knew it. I really couldn’t help but become a green-eyed monster from time to time. To hell with it, she was happy, so I decided to embrace the situation. It was 11pm, that was me done. I downed the last of my drink and stumbled over to where she was flaunting the goods – stumbled being the key word. 6 inch heels are always a good idea at the time, but in reality? Disastrous.

“Jess, I’m going, I’ll text you tomorrow”. She didn’t even had the common decency to give me eye contact – tart. She waved her hand in the air making a gesture to confirm that she’d heard me and yes, she was okay with it. I began to walk towards the exit, yet looking back at Jess with a heavy conscience: I hope she’ll be alright. She always was, she knew how to handle herself. Thanks to my lack of focus, I walked into a fellow patron who covered me in a drink for doing so. Not intentionally, but I was drenched in lager nonetheless. I looked up in an attempt to scold the person responsible, but I couldn’t.

“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Oh God. The person was a he, and he was drop dead gorgeous. Just my type – tall, chiseled, bit rough round the edges, winning smile – wow. He was so aesthetically pleasing that I did, in fact, forget how to speak at that very moment. I, instead, let out a terrible laugh and gave him a friendly pat on the arm to assure him that I was completely fine. Little did he know it was a sleazy attempt to feel his biceps and by God, they were incredible. I had stumbled across a goldmine here.

Rather than leave, we continued to laugh about what had happened. He offered to buy me a drink for my troubles and it certainly wasn’t an offer I was prepared to turn down. We sat in that very bar – the late opener that was – until 6am – daylight. He wasn’t just handsome, he was funny, and witty, and intelligent, or so it seemed. It definitely didn’t feel like a conversation with a complete stranger, it was as though we had known each other for years. Our chemistry was nothing short of predominant as the hours passed and yet there we still were, laughing and joking our way until dawn. This had never happened before.

I’d never really sat down with a member of the opposite sex and indulged in mindless banter for hours on end. Although thinking about it, the banter wasn’t entirely mindless. He asked about my likes, my dislikes, my family, my friends, my job, my dreams – everything. He continued to show a genuine interest in my life, in me, but what was different in this instance is that there was no goal. When dating, you’re ultimately assessing the individual’s suitability as a partner. In business, you meet to form some sort of work-based deal or to close a sale. No, here, there was no aim or intention – just two people who enjoyed each other’s company, and it was phenomenal. For the first time in a long time, it became apparent to me that feelings of elation were reciprocal.

As we decided to call it a night, or a morning at this point, we both commented on how nice it was to meet, how good it was to get to know each other, how refreshing it was to just get along effortlessly, then he asked for my number. I didn’t know how I felt – shocked, pleased, excited – but great nonetheless. I took his phone in my hand, saved my details and passed it back to him – at which point he looked down at the screen, back up at me and smiled – and then it dawned on me.

You realise you have been totally colour blind all of your life and only see the world around you in shades of grey, then all of a sudden, you come across a complete stranger that appears in full colour. Oh God, I like him…

P.S. To be continued