Dating

Dating

I wake up with an unfamiliar weight on my chest. And as soon as I open my eyes, they’re assaulted by blonde hair and I’m quickly reminded of exactly what happened yesterday. Just as I’m recalling how the night ended, Drew begins to stir. He lifts his head to give me a sleepy smile that I can’t help but return. He rolls off of me and on to his back. As he’s stretching to get the kinks out of his back, I lean down to kiss him. And he’s quick to respond, opening his mouth to accept my tongue. The kissing has me quickly desiring more. My hand moves lower toward the sheet draped across his hips. And, Drew freezes. He pulls away to utter five words that I never want to hear, especially when I’m this turned on.

“Baby, we have to talk.” What the fuck.

“We can talk later.” I try to resume our kiss, but his hands on my chest prevent me from reaching his lips.

“No, we can’t do this until we talk.” I roll off of him to lie on my back with a sigh.

“Drew. We spent all last night and early morning fucking. And, now I can’t fuck you without talking first. What the fuck has changed in the past 24 hours?” In hindsight that probably wasn’t the best way to phrase my question. But, in my defense, I was horny…very horny.

“Fuck you, Jesus.” He storms into the bathroom and a few seconds later I hear the shower running. I consider following him into the shower but decide I’d rather not be trapped in close quarters with the angry blonde. Instead I pull on my clothes that were thrown on the floor in yesterday’s haste, which is slightly gross, me being covered in the remnants of last night’s activities.

I decide to wait in the living room to give Drew privacy to change. And, when he walks out he looks surprised to see me. But other than sending a glare my way, he ignores me and walks toward the kitchen. I grab his wrist as he passes the couch.

“Drew, let’s talk.” He looks as if he’s going to kick me out. “Please.” I’m trying.

“Fine. I’ll get coffee.”

*******************

He comes back with two mugs of coffee. I take a sip and am happy to find it’s prepared exactly how I like it. And, knowing he remembered makes me smile a little.

He sits down on the other side of the couch with his legs folded up underneath them and dives feet first into the conversation.

“So, Jesus, what exactly do you want from me? A relationship?” I can’t stop the wince that the R word causes. Fuck, he had to start with the hard questions. I look up from my coffee to see Drew’s eyes downcast in disappointment.

“Drew, I like you and I like spending time with you.”

“If you just want to be my fuck buddy, it’s not going to happen, Jesus.”

“No, no that’s not what I want.”

“Well what do you want? I can’t let what happened before happen again – us having totally different perceptions of our relationship.” He pauses as if he’s thinking of a solution and I can only hope it’s a good one. “Maybe we should go slower this time around.”

“Slower?” and I know I sound suspicious.

“I think we should just start out with dating this time around.” He takes in my skeptical expression. “What? It’ll be fun.”

“Will you be putting out at the end of these dates?” He frowns and I lie. “I’m just joking, Drew.”

“I really want to do this. I want to get to know more about you. I mean, when you think about it we really don’t know that much about eachother.”

“Hmm, dating? So exactly what will these dates entail?” I smile to let him know that I’m going along with his idea.

“Well, you would ask me out, you’d pick me up, you’d bring me flowers, or candy, or jewelry, or some other big expensive gift, like a car.” I roll my eyes, because it’s obvious that he’s joking.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, I get the picture. But, why can’t you ask me out?”

“Well, I could but it was you that messed things up the last time and you are trying to get in my good graces. So…”

“So, Drew will you accompany me on a date tomorrow evening at 7pm?”

“I’d love to Jesus.”

“Do you think I could take a shower here? I kind of need to wash up.” I ask as I stand up and pull off my shirt. I watch as his eyes roam over my chest and see his cheeks turn a pretty pink.

“Um…uh...sure.”

*******************

I look in the mirror as I button up my shirt and my hands are shaking a bit. I’m so nervous. This is actually the only date I’ve ever been on, and I’m just praying I don’t fuck it up. I really want tonight to go well, especially for Drew.

And maybe at the end of the night, I’ll be able to convince him to invite me in for a sleepover.

*******************

The door to Drew’s apartment building is always unlocked. I walk in and take the stairs to the fourth floor and take a deep breath before knocking on his door. When he opens, I shove the bouquet of wildflowers I brought at him.

“Hi Drew!” And, I’m immediately embarrassed by how high and nervous that came out.

“Hi, Jesus. These are for me?” He steps away from the door and we both walk in.

“Um…yeah.”

“They’re beautiful.” I can’t help returning his smile, happy that he’s pleased with my gift.

“Well, I couldn’t afford a car or jewelry and I didn’t know what kind of candy you liked so I thought flowers would be the best gift.”

“I like almonds.” He says it over his shoulder as he’s arranging the flowers in a vase on the counter.

“What?”

“I like chocolate with almonds. It’s the kind of candy I like.”

“Oh. I’ll remember that.” I say distractedly. Drew’s wearing a pair of gray wool pants that are oh-so-flattering to his behind. He turns around and by the smirk on his face I know he caught me staring at his ass.

“Ready to go?”

“Um…sure.”

I take him to a little Mexican restaurant on the other side of town. Marco used to take me to this place whenever he had a hangover, which I was too young to realize at the time. I tell Drew all about my brother Marco, and my mother and older sister Maria. In exchange Drew tells me about his conservative family from the south and his little sister Caroline, who is the only one in his family that knows he’s gay.

After dinner, I take Drew to a gallery showing that I had heard about. It’s a small place and currently holding the works of three artists. Drew was ecstatic that I thought of taking him there since he knows that art shows really aren’t my thing. I like art and all but not enough to spend an evening just looking around at it but I knew Drew would get a kick out of it.

*******************

All in all, the date seemed pretty successful, for which I’m extremely grateful. I walk Drew up to his apartment door and have every intention of just kissing him goodnight there.

But, he invites me in.

And, I’m sure you can guess what happens after that.

Needless to say, this whole dating thing isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.