ExposedNYC

The first phone call after a first date tends to make me nervous. I don’t know why, because if the first date goes well, you’ve already proven that you can carry on a conversation, but when the phone rang last night and I saw that “Pool Boy” was calling, the butterflies in my stomach were a mixture of excitement and nerves.

He had already won points with me because, the day after our great first date, he sent me a text message asking if I wanted to meet him for a drink. I always appreciate someone willing to break “The Rules” about how long to wait before you call. Unfortunately, I was at a charity dinner with my roommate with my phone turned off, so I didn’t get the message until I got home that night. I responded instantly with thanks for the invite, and asked to please schedule a rain check.

So, when he called I took a deep breath and answered the phone. It turns out he was driving home and had heard one of my favorite sports teams playing and wanted to call and see if I was watching the game. Again, major bonus points for remembering that I liked them from our previous conversation. We chatted briefly about our busy weekends, how we were both exhausted and planning on crashing early, and made plans to see each other Tuesday night.

A second date is a whole different ball game. You’ve already exhausted all of the generic questions of work, family, etc. and get to dive into a little more detail. I usually like to make sure there’s something else going on (movie, sporting event, etc.) to help generate topics of conversation. We’re meeting at his pool game, which means I get to see him in a comfortable setting with his friends, including the person who set us up.

This is the point where I try not to project too many ideas onto our future. I have been known to fall into the bad habit of turning a great first date up into such high expectations that I’m inevitably disappointed. He seems really wonderful so far, so I’m going to try to just relax, enjoy myself, and see where this leads. My new motto is “One date at a time”.

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