all afternoon narrowing it down to five guys. So, a Zinfandel, a Merlot, or what?”
“I brought a Zinfandel, and I brought a Riesling.”
“Oh, cool.”
“Which one do you want first?”
“Up to you, girl. You can decide. Come on, let’s go to the kitchen and get some glasses.”
“Okay.”
She followed me to my small little kitchen, and I got a bottle opener and two glasses. I placed them down on the counter, and then opened the bottle of red wine. “Let’s do the red first, because I have some cheese and crackers, and some grapes. Red wine always goes well with cheese.”
“Oh yeah, please tell me you have chocolate as well.”
“Of course I have chocolate, you know I live for chocolate. Do you want milk, or dark, or white?”
“Oh, decisions, decisions.” She grinned. “Let’s see. Let’s do some dark chocolate.”
“Okay, great. Open the fridge, and pull out the strawberries, the gouda cheese, and then I’ll get the crackers and chocolate from the cupboard.” I walked over to the cupboard, and pulled out the box of crackers, and poured them onto a large white plate. She took out the gouda, and I cut it up and put it onto the plate next to the crackers.
Then we headed down the corridor to the living room, and sat on my big gray oversized couch. I’d gotten it on sale from Restoration Hardware and absolutely loved it. Even though I was still paying off the bill. Yes, I had a small issue with living above my means. “Okay, girl. So, you said you narrowed it down to five guys already.” She gave me a surprised look. “I thought there were twenty-five guys on the list?”
“There were, but a lot of them were just not my style.”
“Oh really? Why?”
“Some of them, I didn’t really like their photos. And some of their messages were geeky. Or, I could already tell that they thought too much of themselves. I don’t need a guy with a bigger ego than me. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” She grinned. “So, let’s hear about these guys. Who’s the first one?”
“Okay. Well, the first candidate is a guy called Lucas. He’s very attractive in his picture. Very tall, dark hair, brown eyes. He says he’s a corporate attorney, which I don’t know how I feel about that. Sounds boring. But, he made a joke about that in his email, which I think shows that he most probably has a really good sense of humor. So maybe he’s not as boring as I think he would be. And he said he would like to go on a cupcake and hot chocolate date. Come on now, he’s calling my heart.”
“Yeah, that sounds really cool.” She nodded. “Cupcakes and hot chocolate. Who would say no to that?”
“Yeah, so he’s definitely on the list. I think I’m going to match with him, and hopefully they’ll set us up on a date soon.”
“Oh cool. So, who’s next?”
“Okay. The next guy is Mark. He seems like he’s trying a little bit too hard, because he was like, ‘I’m thanking Zeus for letting me see your profile.’ And, I’m like, ‘Okay. You’re so smart. Eye roll. Zeus is a Greek god, and I’m Greek. Yay for you.’” I wrinkled my nose. “I like a guy that sucks up a bit, but be original. But I don’t know, maybe I should give him a chance. He’s very, very good-looking, but a little bit stocky. He said he played football, which most probably means he made a lot of money. He said he works in the stock market now, but ...”
“But, what?” she said. “That sounds like a pretty good match for you. And, if he dabbles in stocks, that should mean that he can buy you lots of nice gifts.”
“You know I love a nice gift.” I laughed. “but I need more than that. And he made a comment about wanting to travel the Greek islands with me. And, I’m like, “Is that the most original thing you’ve got? Take me to freaking Australia or something. I’m Greek, do I really want to go to the Greek islands and show you around? Most probably not.” So, he’s still a maybe.”
“Yeah. He sounds okay, but I can see why you wouldn’t like him that much. So who’s the third guy?”
“So the third guy sounds dreamy. His name is Pierre,” I said, putting on my best French accent. “And he’s thirty-five, which is seven years older than me, which I