Thanks for Showing Up

I was 15 minutes late…not an auspicious start for a first meeting.  But I had a legitimate excuse (summer interstate traffic), and as I sat in traffic texting him with my ETA and trying not to hyperventilate, I told myself not to expect too much.

He looked close enough to his picture….and was also the only guy sitting alone, so spotting him was easy.  Stood up to greet me (points for that), and didn’t seem put out by the delay. I excused myself to get a drink, a mistake as I was then stuck in line behind an Indian woman with little apparent knowledge of the Starbucks menu ordering complicated coffee drinks for a family of five.  What to do in the interim as I wait? Do I look over at him and smile?  If I look once do I have to keep looking, which will end up being rather awkward at the rate the line was moving?  Should I concentrate on my phone (damn, left it on the table…can’t do that).

He ended up being a nice guy, and fairly cute, but very direct and clear about the fact that he had been around the online dating block a few times. Dare I say jaded?  I heard a few war stories…most of them amusing. But we commiserated a bit about the aggravations of the whole thing and I think he took some pity on me when I told him that it was my very first meeting/pseudodate with anyone online. 

It was a short meeting (and I don’t think my nerves could’ve taken it a whole lot longer), but we talked about meeting up again.  Which had me checking email every hour today validating my self-worth (pathetic, I know).  But it finally came through this afternoon:

“Thanks for showing up and not being insane. Do you have a free night this week?” 

Which made me laugh at first.  And then made me wonder if this was the only criteria for a second date?

BTW, my three dates in three days strategy has fallen by the wayside.  Lesson #2: a large percentage of guys met online don’t seem to be notoriously reliable.