The "non" date

It is a well established fact that I do not know what a date is even when I am on one, but I am working on it. Last night I was out on what I think most would consider a date, but I am still a little skeptical. I will let you be the judge.

About two months ago I was out at the bar with Roomie, GB and about 40 people we knew have drinks at the bar, listening to music, you know the usual. Towards the end of the evening an acquaintance of mine stopped me to ask me if I knew about a show that was going to be in town in the New Year, was it good, should he go, blah, blah, blah. I work in the entertainment business (which is probably why he asked me if I knew about the show) and because of that I often get free tickets to different events: movie passes, play tickets, dance tickets, galleries events, etc. So I said to him that I had in fact seen the show last year, but that I would probably get an invite to the show again this year and if he wanted I would be happy to give him the other free ticket. He agreed and we left it at that for a long time.

Flash forward to the New Year. Mr. Acquaintance got my email from roomie and sent me a note making sure we were still on for the show. I assured him as soon as I knew about tickets he would be the first to know. So we emailed a few more times telling holiday stories and making a plan for the show. I am still a little unsure about whether this would be considered a date or not especially since the last two times I went to the theatre with a boy here and here they both thought it was a date … so I proceeded with caution.

On Monday I sent him email to make a plan to meet at the theatre. He didn’t respond all day but called me that night at home to say he would meet me at the house and we could walk to the theatre together, fine by me, but is it a date. I polled the roomie and GB and they agreed that it was not a date.

So last night, when he picked me up there was something in the air that lead me to believe he thought it was a date, so I began to think it might be a date. So we walked to the theatre together. We exchanged stories, found out we went to the same university at the same time (but in different programs), we both grew up in the same part of the country and share friends through roomie. We got to the theatre found some seats, made more small talk then watched the show. After the show he bought me a drink at the theatre and we sat with friends and talked about the show, the party from the weekend blah, blah, blah.

After one drink he asked me what I wanted to do, it was still early but I didn’t want to have another expensive drink at the theatre so he and I wandered off to my local pub. On the way I asked him to tell me a story he had alluded to at the party on Saturday but hadn’t told. We got to the pub, ordered our beer and he told me this great story about an ex girlfriend who had messed with his life. As I was listening started thinking, maybe it isn’t a date, do dates really tell sex stories to each other? Do they reveal that they have a group of friends they share their one night stand stories with, regularly? Not sure but whatever. We continued swapping stories and drinking our beer. Before long it was midnight and we decided it was time to head home. He walked me home and we said goodbye. We hugged and he gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me he had a good time and see ya around.

So at the end of it all, I think it would be classified as a date, and a good one at that. Will I see him again, probably only as a friend, but if this is what dating can be like, maybe 2007 is the year that this single girl starts dating …

TSG