The incident of the first/second date

Our first "date" was a week ago, though I was unaware of it at the time. She called and invited me to see a free movie. I assumed our mutual friend would be there. She called her a few times during the night, to see if indeed we would be interrupted by a third party. I bought her a cup of tea at a cafe and we walked around until 10:30 or so. Only later did I think, "I went on a date tonight... Didn't I?"

Last night she called me again. She left a message.
"Hey Other Alex, it's Fast Talk. I was just trying to get in touch with you, wondering if you wanted to get together."

I called her back when I got off the subway. No answer, I called back 30 minutes later.

"Helloooooo!"
"Hey Other Alex, what's up?"
"Nothing, just returning your call."
"Ah, I'm sorry, my sister was on the phone when you called earlier."
"S'ok. Um... I can't really hang out tonight, but tomorrow would be great. Do you want to... I don't know, like... Get dinner? Or... Something?"
"Yeah, that sounds great, I have a coupon I think for somewhere in Murray Hill."
"Great, I get off work at 6, so I'll give you a call before I leave and we can firm up plans."
"Sounds great! I'll see you then."
"Alright, cool. Bye."
"Bye."

I called her the next day, we made plans to meet outside the Public Library at 6:15. We met and started wandering. Down 5th avenue, past the Empire State Building, talking about life. She talked about libraries and her job that she had for two days before she was let go. I was hungry. We stopped and got tacos and smoothies at a restaurant, sitting and talking for an hour or so. I paid for dinner and we went on.

The night consisted mostly of walking around aimlessly. We went down to Union Square. She insisted we go into the diesel. We made a quick tour, tried to figure out if one of the clerks was male or female until he complimented her sunglasses, and left.

"BYE!" She yelled to what appeared to be a dashingly dressed security guard for the store. "I love saying bye to people in stores."
"Well, I suppose it's sad, you might never see them again."
"I KNOW!" She pushed me on the arm.

Across the street we sat on the steps of the square and talked about bums and skaters and how people making out on park benches had no class. Pleasant conversation about nothing in particular. But no gaps. Everything flowed naturally. Conversation as art. She kept talking about her lack of a job. Everything was about art to her, beauty, design, style, fashion, I wished I could be as passionate about my passions. In my post collegiate youth I stumbled into a job that pays well and have been riding the disposable income because for the first time ever I know where my next paycheck will come from and I know it will be large. We kept walking.

9 blocks north brought us to the flatiron building. The view of the Empire State was fantastic, the flatiron was dull. Neither of us was impressed.

"So what do you want to do?" I queried.
"I don't really care."
"Neither do I. Do you want to get some coffee/tea or something? I'd like to sit down."
"Okay, yeah, let's do that."
"Should we just keep walking 'til we find a place?"
"Sure, we can head to the lower east side."
"Alright, I know there's stuff there."

We started off.

"So, if you could do anything with all your money right now what would it be?" An interesting question I thought.
"I guess I'd blow it all on a trip. Go back to Europe, bounce around. There's nothing particular holding me here."
"That's cool. What would you be doing right now if you had your choice?"
'I'd walk around aimlessly with you' I thought.
"I dunno... Go to a bahhhhhhh." Myself and McDouchebag always traded Boston accents for no reason in particular.
"Yeah, I don't drink though."
"That's why I never brought it up."

We walked all the way to the lower east side, to 5th and 1st Ave. We had been walking since 49th and 6th. I wanted to sit down.

"So what do you want to do? I don't know of any specific cafe's here."
"I know of one on Ave. A. I went there years ago." She told me.
"Are you sure? There's not all that much out there, this is sort of the main drag." I didn't know of anything but bars past 1st Ave.
"I promise it's out there within a block, but I can't give you a direction."
"You just want to take me out there and steal my wallet don't you?"
"If I wanted your wallet I would have taken it, where is it? Right back here..." She went for my back pocket. I moved my wallet to my front pocket.
"Not anymore."
We arrived at Ave. A. Traffic whizzed by and music poured from a nearby bar.
"I don't think it's here, it was a much quieter area than this."
We walked to Ave. B.
"Well... Maybe it's not here anymore. There's all these places, they don't need some divey cafe anymore I guess."
"Maybe they do, I mean... All they have are these places." The multitude of generic restaurant/bars would have benefited from a dive.
"I'm sorry." We passed an open vegetable stand. "Do you need any celery or greens?"
"No, I think I'm set."
We passed a hookah bar. Pausing, she looked at the menu.
"We could get a hookah."
"Yeah, we could."
"Is there anyone in there."
As she stuck her face into the window I saw a man, clearly the owner, look back motioning at us.
"I think he's waving us in."
He stuck his head out, informed us that a hookah was $20, they had tea and we should come in. We obliged.

"So I don't know what to do about this job thing. I've been sending out my resume, faxing it to people. I'm really forward with everyone, I'm just like; 'Hi, what do you do?'" She leaned in and placed her cheek on mine.
"Well, all I'm saying is I'm temping and for the first time I have disposable income and it's great. I can afford to..."
"Take out people who don't have jobs?"
"Yeah, but I love to do that. I don't have to worry about money anymore."
"Yeah, I guess. I'm just so stressed out because I think of everything in terms of the future."
"I think of everything in terms of the present. My whole life was phrased in terms of the next step, finishing high school, finishing college, now I've finished college and have nothing to do with my life. I kind of like wasting time."

The hookah was prepared well, real coals were used and replaced, the water was cold. I blew smoke rings, she was impressed and tried, unsuccessfully, to blow them herself. I tried to teach her but she didn't really want to know. When the hookah started to burn I went to the bathroom. Coming back she had moved down the bench and put her feet up. I sat down next to her and did the same. Gradually we started holding hands.

"I'm so tired, do I look tired?" She asked.
"Not really, you look fine."
"I'm soooooo tired."
"From what?"
"From everything! I've been doing stuff all day today. I went to the library! The train took like 2 hours to get to Manhattan. I should go home."
"Do you want to get the check?"
"Yeah, sure."

I got the check. The tea was overpriced and the tip was already added so it cleaned me out. We got up and left.

"So what are you doing tomorrow? Same ol' boring job?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"When do you have to be in?"
"10, 10am. What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Nothing I guess, and everything. What is this? Is this Tomkins Square park."
"It is indeed."
"So we're on St. Mark's!"
"Yeah... Where we were before." We arrived at 1st Ave. "So there's a train station 7 blocks south and 7 blocks north."
"Let's go north, the PATH is at that one. Right?"
"Yeah, 14th st, we passed it earlier."
"Alright, let's go!" We started off. "Are those magazines?" She grabbed at a stack of Men's Health magazines on the side of the road, coming up instead with a cookbook that had been put in the middle of the stack. "My sister hates it when I go through the trash." She kept walking. Barely pausing she stuffed the cookbook in a phonebooth and continued on. "I love putting things in phone booths. In fact if we ever hang out and I DON'T put something in a phone booth, you have to be like 'Hey, you didn't put anything in a phone booth yet.'"
"Deal." We arrived at 14th and 1st. "Dammit... I can't believe I forgot that the 14th st stop is at 6th Ave. We either have to walk back 13 blocks or walk over 5 avenues."

I grabbed her hand, she held mine.

"Which way is it? Left? Straight?"
"Left."
"Okay. So what was your craziest relationship?" A land mine.
"I've only really had 3, one for one month, one for 4 months and one for 2 1/2 years. And they all ended not so well."
"No one was like, totally crazier than the other." Stop asking these questions.
"Not really, I guess the last one I broke up with 4... maybe 5 times. It was completely toxic."
"Why'd you keep getting back together? The sex?" Goddammit.
"Kind of. That and I never really meet new people where I'm from, so we'd have the same job, same social circle, so we'd fall into bed."
"Yeah, I never meet people either. That's why I'm still with my boyfriend." I loosened my hand but quickly regained composure. "I just never meet anyone new where I used to live. His name's Ned, he got the short end of the name stick, right?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know. He's weird. It's like, I moved and called him and was like 'maybe I'll never see you again' and he's just 'whatever' and went back to playing video games. And all his friends are these 19 year olds and they think they're the shit. I've never even met any of his friends. His best friend is this 19 year old kid. Whatever."
"He sounds like a real winner."
"I wonder what he would have thought if I had told him I was going on a date tonight. He probably wouldn't have cared. Oh my god! Would he have cared?"
"I have no idea."
"It's like, you know someone for 2 years and you don't know anything about them. Or maybe it's the opposite, you know everything and there's just not much to know."
"Like I said, I have no idea."
"Whatever, I'm in New York, I should be dating people."
"Yeah."

We arrived at the station. When the halls parted we said goodbye. The hug was tight and gradually escalated until she kissed me on the cheek, started to go, ducked back in and gave me a short kiss on the lips.

"Were you weirded out when I brought up Ned?"
"A little bit."
"Sorry."
"It's alright."
"So when do I see you again? I'm probably going out of town this weekend."
"Okay, I dunno, give me a call or I'll call you or something. "
"Ok, bye."

The train ride home was crowded, I was silent. When I arrived home before I opened the door I beat the brick wall until my knuckles were ragged and bloody. When I reached in my pocket for my keys I found $2 that I used to buy tonic water. Then I went inside poured out the rest of my Gin and mixed a mason jar full of full strength gin and tonic. Downing that I called Paul Buerre. As I related my story he reminded me that any girl who would like us would have to be crazy.

I couldn't say I disagreed with him.