Monday afternoon

I clean the hell out of my apartment. Dishes, laundry, ironing, clean bedsheets and a quick bathroom fix.

Pascale comes to pick me up around 4:30. We go to the wine store. I choose a ripasso and a new-zealand sauvignon blanc. We go to the huge farmer’s market, not to far from my place. It’s still early spring so there’s mostly flowers, but we manage to find everything we want. She loves the place, as do most people. We go the fish monger, the cheese store, the bakery, and we pick up fruits and vegetables in the market. I let her pay for a few things.

As we’re walking around, we run into Scarlett. She’s with her mother. Now I know Scarlett and Pascale come from the same far away town, some place very small. But I also know they are nearly 10 years apart… what are the odds.

I introduce everyone. Scarlett looks at Pascale and says: I so know you!

She continues: Yeah, when you were a young teen, you were hanging out at The Local (Some sort of youth community center where they offer activities back in their home town).

Now this is embarrassing. Scarlett was not hanging out there herself, she was a youth worker there. It’s like she’s seeing me walk around with a girl she babysat!

We get back to my place. I make her a watermelon and basil cocktail and I pour myself a bourbon on ice.

I cook for her… I mess up pretty much everything. My timing was way off, I was a bit tipsy and my small kitchen with about two square feet of countertop surface sucks. She says she loves everything and eats way more than I do.

After dinner, we moved to the living room. There was some tension, some touching, but she was not gonna make that easy for me. Fine, I don’t mind pulling bold moves. It works 99% of the time and if it doesn’t, women are still gonna respect you way more for trying than for not trying.

I move in and kiss her.

Things heat up a bit, but she looks like she wants to stay in control. It’s normal, she’s young, she’s here alone at my place and she barely knows me. All she knows is that I’m sort of a player. So I just let her take things slow, until she closes in on me.

We never made it to the fourth anniversary party of The Club. I hope it wasn’t noticed.