“Okay. So I’m guessing that you didn’t sleep with him or do anything?”
“No. I let him give me a kiss on the cheek and then I walked away.”
“Wow. I thought you said you would make out.”
“Girl, I wanted to make out with him so badly, but I also want a second date with him and you know, I want him going to bed tonight with blue balls, thinking about me.” I laughed and she laughed too.
“Oh, Gemma, you’re so funny.”
“Hey, I try my best.” I walked into the living room. “Oh my God. I feel like I should have a glass of wine or something to de-stress.”
“Oh no. Why are you stressed out?”
“I’m not stressed out, but I’m just thinking that this is going to be really hard. Like what if all these guys are all really handsome and all really nice, it’s going to be hard to make a decision.”
“So how will you make the decision?”
“I mean, I’ll have to think about it, if that happens, but I guess I’ll have to kiss a lot of guys and see who I’m the most compatible with physically as well.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”
“No, I don’t think it will be a bad thing. So, I have a date tomorrow with the French guy Pierre.”
“Ooh, that sounds like it will be cool. What are you doing?”
“We’re going to go to some sort of French restaurant. I just hope he doesn’t try to get me to eat escargot because you know, I hate escargot.”
“Yeah. Gross. I would hate to eat snails.”
“Yeah. They don’t taste good. And I’m also hoping he doesn’t want to get frog legs because you know what? I will be that unadventurous American, that doesn’t eat snails or frog legs. And if he doesn’t like it, then he can lump it.”
“Oh, Gemma. I bet you would eat them if he was really sexy.”
“Now there are a lot of things I would do if a guy’s really sexy.”
“Oh yeah?” She yawned really loudly.
“Haha, Gemma. Am I boring you?”
“I was just kind of drifting off to take a nap.”
“You weren’t napping. You were obviously in bed. It’s late. I should let you go, but I’ll call you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Call me tomorrow.”
“Okay. Bye.”
I hung up the phone and then sat back on the couch. I just wanted to sit back and think about my date. Lucas had been really interesting. And even though I hadn’t admitted it to Sarah, there was something more there than just chemistry. Yes. We were physically attracted to each other, but we had banter. We made each other laugh and I knew that was something really rare. Though I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.
A part of me didn’t want to go on any dates with other guys. A part of me just wanted to go on another date with Lucas and see how it went. But I knew I couldn’t limit my options just because of one good date, because if I did that and the second date went badly, then I’d be back to square one again and I’d have no one. And my two thousand dollars would be down the drain. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked with the agency. I was pretty sure that once I went monogamous with someone in a confirmed relationship, they considered their work to be done. And well, one date was not good enough for two thousand dollars. Even if he was the one.
I looked down at my phone as it beeped. I saw that I had a message from Lucas. I’d given him my phone number as we’d left the restaurant.
Lucas: Hey sweet girl, I had an awesome time with you tonight. Thinking of you, hope you have sweet dreams of me.
I smiled at the message. I was about to respond to him, but then I remembered the forty-five-minute rule. Never respond to a text message from a guy you’ve recently started dating for forty-five minutes. That way he thinks you have other things going on in your life. I hated playing games, but I knew that I couldn’t be too eager.
If I showed that I was too eager, he’d think he had me in the bag. And then maybe he wouldn’t want me, or maybe he wouldn’t try as hard. And I wanted him to come with his best A game. I wanted him to woo me. I wanted him to want me. And