Dear Diary
I’m pleased to report that I’ve been sleeping peacefully the past few nights since Karate Kid’s visit. I was quietly hoping that things had in fact changed for the better between us. I felt like things had, but I wanted to be cautious as Rhetorical Questions – Entry 104 was only five weeks ago. So much water had passed under the bridge within that time it was hard to know for sure. My heart says yes and my mind says no.
On Thursday evening, he sent through a message that made me smile: “I blame you for feeling unwell….I should have just kissed you anyway… 😛 ” It was a positive signal, he must have been testing the water to make sure I was still ‘there’. Perhaps, he wasn’t sure if it was safe to believe that we both wanted the same thing, at the same time, for the first time?
Seeing as it was late at night I waited until the next morning so that my reply didn’t come across as ironic: “Oh no! I’m so sorry! Your visit did cure my insomnia, thank you xo”
His reply made me smile again with reassurance: “I cure a lot of other things too :p – see you tonight at the dinner party”
I didn’t end up making it to the dinner party because of unexpected work commitments. I replied to him the following day: “Hehe really now? I didn’t get to go because of work – boo!”
He replied “Hahaha…there are always other events…like tonight…I got to starve myself today to get my money’s worth….lol…” That night was a mutual friend’s birthday dinner. It was an all-you-can-eat Japanese BBQ restaurant. Fortunately, this particular dinner I was able to attend…
Outside the restaurant I bumped into Karate Kid and his friend. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and a big long hug. I wasn’t sure if we should be acting as friends or couply so defaulted to friend. At the dinner table he sat next to me. There was a group of 14 of us in total. It was lots of fun and the food was delicious. A couple of times we bantered at the table but with a certain level of restraint so raise eyebrows. At one point we disagreed on something and he mouthed to me that it deserved a spank – time to change the conversation I thought to myself.
Mr Shy Guy was at the dinner as well. He was seated at the opposite end of the table to me but would catch my eye and smile every so often. He never ended up texting me after asking for my number. Maybe I should check if I gave him the correct one? Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore.
Near the end of the dinner one of our friends was eating a strange udon noodle sea urchin dish. It had an acquired taste and so I was encouraged (maybe peer pressured) into trying it. As expected, I found it repulsive. I didn’t finish the strand of noodle and left it on my plate. The all-you-can-eat buffet required that there be no food wastage so not to incur additional cost. Karate Kid told me that I needed to finish it. I told him that he could and pushed the plate toward him. A voice from a friend at one end of the table called out with a cheeky undertone “Be a good boyfriend KK and help her eat it” …..My body went tense when the word ‘boyfriend’ touched my ears….my immediate thoughts were: did he really just say that? did I hear that correctly? did everyone hear it? are we girlfriend and boyfriend? do I look awkward? is everyone looking at my reaction to see what I’ll do? Do people think that we are together? what’s KK doing? – I looked at him and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking – was he embarrassed? was he happy? I couldn’t read him, all I could ascertain is that he was making some sort of gesture to the guy that called it out. He didn’t seem to be denying it. I decided it was best to ignore it and carry on like nothing happened. A waitress came and took the plate away so neither of us had to eat the rejected noodle.
I still can’t figure out if the friend was being a wing man for Karate Kid or just stirring trouble. I mean, it is a weird thing to call out in front of a group of friends. If you think about it, you wouldn’t suggest that friends were girlfriend and boyfriend as it could make people feel very uncomfortable. Could it be that Karate Kid had confided in him and this friend was trying to help push things along between us? Or maybe this guy just has a strange sense of humour and meant nothing by it?
At the end of the dinner I needed to leave first. Karate Kid walked me to my car. As we walked out we didn’t hold hands or touch. We kept a ‘safe’ distance between us, well aware that everyone could see us through the glass windows. When we go to the car park we hugged and we shared a brief kiss on the lips. I was still sick and he seemed relatively well, so I guess that stopped him from kissing me properly. I guess time will tell what it all means.
Moving forward to work today – I had an interesting conversation. There is a person at work that knows about The Secret Admirer. By chance, they were eavesdropping when the messenger was giving me information about them a few weeks ago. Ever since, he has been asking me who The Secret Admirer is and if I like them too. Today was no different. I told him that out of respect for the other person that I didn’t want things spreading about the workplace. They understood this and then after a minute piped up “Hey! you know what!? you know who you should go out with?” I am sure I started blushing at this point. I sheepishly said that I didn’t know if I wanted to know. He then said a different colleague’s name. He told me that he was a great guy and that he was looking to meet someone. This particular colleague though, I hadn’t had much to do with and didn’t really know them at all. He continued “He’s actually hopeless when it comes to ladies and is too shy to do anything. He really has no idea what to do” I found this hard to believe as he seemed so confident and disinterested in women when at work. The conversation then changed to Trivia Tuesdays. I never go as I’ve never been invited and I don’t particularly like trivia. He asked why I never go and suggested that I go some time (no thanks, I know that his single friend goes there a lot). I didn’t commit to anything, I just said that I’m generally busy on Tuesdays and went back to my work and hoped he’d drop the point – my rule still stood: no dating in the workplace.
A few minutes later, he interrupts me again and asks if I’d been to the nearby cafe for lunch – I hadn’t. He suggested that we go for lunch….I never go out for lunch as I always bring my lunch, besides, work is so chaotic on the weekends that I am not even guaranteed a lunch break! He told me about the menu….it sounded amazing….they even had an ice cream bar there! so tempting, but no, must…stay…strong…He said that we could go at 2PM. I laughed it off and didn’t say yes or no, I just went back to my work and hoped that he wasn’t serious. I don’t deal with impromptu psuedo-dates well – I mean, what was it? was he trying to set me up with his friend or with himself?
At 1PM I made sure that I had moved to a different area so that we couldn’t cross paths. At 2:30PM, I had a sneaky snack that was interrupted by a phone call. I had to go back to my original area to follow something up and crossed paths with him in the doorway. With a grin on his face he asked “Is it lunchtime yet?” I said no as I had lots of things to do still. I thought to myself “Is he serious?…surely not”. But, just to be sure I disappeared for the next hour. If he really wanted to go to lunch he would phone me, maybe?
At 4PM, I went back to the original area figuring it was safe to return. As soon as I arrived he commented that I’d been gone for a long time. I said that I was caught with a lot of work in a different area. He asked if I had lunch and I said that I got to eat a doughnut and that he should get one too if he could be bothered walking for it. Gingerly, I asked if he’d had a chance to eat. He said that he went at 3-somthing-PM….I wondered if he’d been waiting for me to return….I left it at that and remained pleasant for the rest of the shift.
A quick update: Since Friday night The Musician has been texting me a lot. He sent a casual text “Happy Friday Anastasia! Hope you’ve had a good week. How’s things?” I told him that things were fine and that I was heading out for the evening. He sent a second message “Great to hear! Work going ok? I’m well thanks. Keeping busy…Nice! Out dancing? Have fun!” . It sounded like he wanted a chat so I left it until Sunday to reply: “Hey! work is going well. Hehe yes, certainly keeping busy. How was your weekend?” He told me that it was his Father’s birthday and that they’d had a big party for him. He then asked how my weekend was – I haven’t replied. I don’t feel like a text-a-thon. I’ll reply in the morning with a generic the weekend was great. If he wants to chat he should invite me on a proper date.
I thought of Karate Kid when The Musician texted me today and when the guy at work invited me to lunch – where do I stand? technically, I’m still single so can do what I please. No word from The Spaniard either. I wonder what he’s up to. I think it’s coming to the point where I need to seriously consider what I’ll be doing in November – do I still go to Spain? or do I make other plans?
Anastasia
The Contemporary Princess 