#299 A Date?

I think I accidentally went out on a date last evening.

I haven't been dating, and I'm not sure I'm ready to, and if it had been clear that it was a "date", I might not have said yes to the invitation, or said yes but made it clear it wasn't really a date, which is sort of cheating, but ... whatever.

He had called out of the blue.  I don't often answer the phone - I hate telephones - usually let the tape get it, but our electricity had dropped earlier, which erases the outgoing message, and I had not yet put a new outgoing message on the machine, and Daughter yells at me when she calls and gets a beep and no message, and it was about the time when Daughter often calls, so I said "Oh, shoot (or something similar)" and answered the phone.

I've known him for about 15 years.  We worked in the same department for a few years, and I had given him a Mensa flyer and suggested he apply.  After I left The Company he joined Mensa, and so now I see him every month or two at dinners.  He's one of my favorite people, the voice of reason and conciliation on the Mensa Yahoo Group, in which he is quite active, and if he happens to be standing nearby when I arrive at Mensa dinners, I'll greet him with a hug.  (Odd, because I'm not a hugger.)  But I know very little about him personally.  One of my biggest complaints about the Mensa dinners is that there is little conversation - it's sit, eat, settle the bill, and run.  Any conversation tends toward the food, the next dinner, and gossip about whomever isn't there. 

So, he called, and I answered.  We chatted about nothing for a little bit, and then he asked if I'd like to go with him to that penguin movie at the Upstate, that last night was the last night for it (which we found out later was in error, maybe they extended it).    So I said yeah, that sounds good.  He seemed to assume that dinner was included.  Well, that's fine too.

As far as I knew, he was married.  I had met his wife about 6 years ago, but he always showed up at Mensa stuff alone.  That means nothing - lots of couples have separate interests and/or schedules.  It didn't strike me as odd that he'd called because that's one of the advantages of Mensa - if you want company, you have a ready-made source of like-minded companions.  I figured he had asked on the Yahoo group if anyone wanted to go with him, and someone had said "Try Silk.  She lives up there."

I checked Yahoo.  He hadn't put out a general call for company.  Hmmmm.  And then after I thought about it a little more, I remembered that there had been a long pause between the general chitchat and the invitation.  I remember that pause.  I've heard it before.  Eons ago. 

Uh-oh.

So anyway, we met at the sidewalk cafe next to the theater at 5:30, and somewhere within the first ten minutes he mentioned his ex-wife (two years ex), so that mental question was answered, we had iced coffee and hot wings, walked around town a bit, had dinner, went to the 9:00 showing (the planned 6:50 had sold out), sat and talked for another long while, noticed that it was now 11:45 and he had to get gas before the drive home, so we went searching for an open gas station, then to my car, where ... he leaned in the door and aimed for the lips and I dodged but he was faster than I was, so there were a few chaste pecks.  Very awkward, but that's ok.  It was kinda cute.

Damn.

I like him, and I would love to spend time with him, going places and doing things, but I'm not sure I want to go beyond that level.  Well, we'll see what happens.  He's partially retired now, too, teaching some classes here and there, so the days are rife with opportunity.

If I didn't scare him off completely.

~~Silk