A date (?) with the Rocker

One of my favorite quotes is by Helen Rowland and it goes: “Why does a man take it for granted that a girl who flirts with him wants him to kiss her—when, nine times out of ten, she only wants him to want to kiss her?” Truer words have never been spoken.

Had my date with the Rocker last night. I called him from work around 5pm and we’re chatting a bit… then he starts rattling off these things he has to do that night, including meeting a scalper on a street corner to buy tickets to the rugby world cup and going to his friend’s apartment for drinks. Then he goes, “So what do you think?” and I’m thinking he’s cancelling on me so I’m like “Wait, what are you asking me?” And he says, “Do you want to come with me to my friend’s house and have a drink?” Romantic, huh? Anyway it gave me a chance to meet some new people…

It was a couple, a Dutch girl from Amsterdam and her French boyfriend (who is the Rocker's childhood friend). The four of us are sitting in the living room, listening to French music, drinking wine, eating and talking-- they were really interesting. They met in Bolivia 4 years ago-- the boyfriend is a documentary filmmaker who’s been travelling the world for the last 8 years capturing the int’l music scene for public TV. The girl just finished her masters in something political and works for an NGO but moonlights as a singer. It was a very refreshingly mature evening, considering I’ve been hanging out with college kids as of late. And I really like the girlfriend, we totally hit it off (a new friend perhaps?) and it turns out her birthday is one day before mine. I told her that I had nothing planned for my 25th since all my friends are back in the States and she invited me to celebrate with her—she’s rented out a bar in Amsterdam and is inviting a bunch of friends from France to come out and party for the night, then crash at the flat she keeps there. Thankfully I’m not shy about thrusting myself into people’s lives so I’m definitely taking her up on her offer! If I can’t celebrate with my friends, I think this may be the next best thing.

Anyway, back to the Rocker. I got up to leave around 11pm and he said he’d walk me home. Turns out he’s been living in Spain, Buenos Aires and China for the last 3 years or so and is just in Paris for a temporary layover till he moves back to China in December. He doesn’t work yet (its seems like all French people under 30 are unemployed but have about 4 advanced degrees) so for the time being he’s just bumming around. We get to my apt, he gives me the obligatory bisous (kiss on the cheek) and walks away… I’m thinking, ‘Ok…?’ So when I got up to my apt I text’d him asking, “What time do you leave tomorrow?” (he’s going to a 3-day birthday party at a villa in a town near the German border this weekend) and my phone rings right away. He asks if I would like him to come back (I thought that was funny and a bit presumptuous)… but we hang out in my room, chatting (he gave me more reasons as to why I should run for the hills immediately), drinking wine, and he leaves about an hour later (get your mind out of the gutter folks!). It was fun… and that was my night!

I don’t think dear old Helen would mind if I amended her quote for the 21st century to read: “Why does a man take it for granted that a girl who kisses him wants him to sleep with her?”

Still, I’m definitely intrigued (and I love meeting guys with cool friends, it tells you a lot about a person)… we’ll see what his next move is.