Date Recap: “TGI Fridays”

I went out with an old friend whom I recently bumped into at a bar in Philly. We worked together 13+ years ago at TGI Fridays in Towson. At that time, I remember him being the super cute host and I would think of reasons to stand near the host stand or to talk to him. Toward the end of the summer, we became better friends and kept in touch when we both went back to college (near each other in the Philly area). Shortly thereafter we lost touch and then there is a big question mark for about 13 years until I recognized him at a bar last weekend.  He lives in Philly now and we went to dinner/drinks over the weekend.

I walked into the restaurant and “TGI Fridays” was sitting at the bar, he turned to look at me and I felt myself blush - he is so handsome. He was cute. He is now somewhere past hot toward ruggedly handsome. Oh wow. I had to immediately suppress my geek-out instincts which usually get the best of me.  The line between dinner with an old friend and a date got very blurry very quickly.  I did a quick inhale to try and clear my mind and walked over with my most dazzling smile (complete with hip swagger) and greeted him (albeit with an awkward hug...he was so handsome that it made me nervous to hug him).  We proceeded to talk, eat, and drink for the next 4 hours.  We had some things in common and some differences of opinion but in a way that made it fun to talk about and catch up.  At the end of the night I was feeling pretty good from a couple of drinks and he was looking even better than when I first walked in (thanks to a killer smile which creates those really hot lines around the eyes ala Pierce Brosnan).

At the end of the evening, we walked outside and he kissed me!  I almost fell over. Again, I had to do a quick inhale and try to pull myself together - play it cool, Wonder Woman, play it cool. He walked me to my car and we discussed getting another drink but decided against it. Instead he kissed me again (this time I swear I swooned, but quickly recovered and gave him the best ‘you are damn lucky to be kissing me’ kiss that I could muster).  He asked me to text when I got home so he knew I was home safe.

I did as he requested and he replied that he was wired and we should have gotten that last drink - I took that to mean he had a good time!  I didn’t hear from him the next day but he did text yesterday to see if I was out and about (if by “out and about” he meant the symphony, then yes, I was. However, I think he was referring to watching football).  Unfortunately no asking for a second date yet.

I’ve been saying all year that I just wanted one really good date. The evening that you wish would go on forever, followed by the kiss that stays with you for days. I’m really happy to say that I had just such an evening.  Let’s raise a glass and cheers to more to come!