A post in which M and I meet for food and a visit, but not a date

Well some kind of barrier fell with M during the night. Surprisingly, after freezing up when I mentioned the word “dating” last night, today he called me and texted me periodically. He asked me out for Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

When we talked on the phone, he started trying to firm up the date. I said “After all this talk today I figured you’d be here tonight.” He laughed. About a half hour later, he asked me to come to see him tonight. He lives up around Spartanburg.

I called Billy on the way up today and talked to him about everything. I asked him if he thought I was nuts. I really feel like M is showing me something real. Billy sounded genuinely happy for me. He said if I'm seeing something here then I need to see where it goes. I'm a big boy, and I'm going in with my eyes wide open. At this point, if things don't work out, at the very least I'll have had several truly memorable evenings - a great life experience to look back on. Thus affirmed, I went on. Like I would have turned around anyway.

We went out to dinner at a little Mexican place and talked. I was teasing him over the meal and told him to let me know when we started dating. He said probably after this weekend was over. He’s going to Florida this weekend with a bunch of friends. I asked him if we couldn’t be officially dating until he got back so he could have fun on his trip, and he looked slightly abashed.

This, of course, was the perfect segue into a brief discussion of the monogamy thing. He is still drinking the Kool-Aid, which is fine. I’m not worried about that right now. But I told him to have fun on his trip and that I would be here when he got home. I could hear the wheels turning, but we talked of other things.

We had a pleasant dinner, and went back to his place. His roommate was out at a softball game, but they came in later and went downstairs to the den. I had to wonder later if that might be a bit awkward, since things got a bit noisy later on in the evening; but by the time I left they had already gone to bed.

It was hard to leave, but I am really tired.