Wine me, dine me, 86 me
The weekend positively flew by and, as much as it looked like déjà vu heading into Saturday night, things hardly ended like last time. I flew out to see my sister, her best friend and to celebrate the friend’s birthday. I’ve actually spent a lot of time with this particular friend of hers and we get along really well because she is a very cool girl. We don’t have any history together, but I do know that she has been interested in me in the past.
After multiple delays (including the pilot running 30 minutes late for the flight), I finally arrived around 11:00 Friday night. BirthdayGirl picked me up from the airport and, since it was so late and we had a very full day planned for Saturday, we went straight back to her place so we could get some sleep. We ended up talking and catching up for a couple hours before deciding to turn in. On the way to bed, she asked, matter-of-factly, if I wanted to sleep on the couch or in her bed with her. Because of the way she asked, I knew that she wasn’t looking to hook up, but rather just provide me with a comfortable alternative to the couch. Figuring the bed would provide a much better night’s sleep, I took her up on her offer. As expected, things remained innocent through the duration of the night and I awoke quite refreshed.
Saturday morning, I boarded a 60 person chartered bus with BirthdayGirl, my sister, 40 of BirthdayGirl’s closest friends and copious amounts of alcohol. Nothing like starting the day with mimosas at 10:00AM! The plan was to take the bus into an area with a lot of wineries and do tastings at 3 different wineries. By the time we arrived at the first stop, everyone was already thoroughly intoxicated. We started off with a tour, but most of the group was being too obnoxious and rude for us to continue, so we were led straight to the tasting room so they could get us out of there as quickly as possible.
Once in the tasting room, everybody continued to be loud and obnoxious. I was genuinely interested in picking up some wine, so I found the situation to be a bit frustrating; not to mention, embarrassing.
The second winery was a repeat of the first, except that they didn’t even bother trying to take us on a tour. We were about to leave for the third stop, when the battery on the bus exploded, rendering our transportation inoperable. According to the bus driver, the next winery was a half mile down the road, should we be inclined to walk.
Since it was only half a mile, I had no issues with walking; besides, it was an exceptionally nice day out. About 11 other people joined me and we were on our way. After covering a good two miles, the final winery was still not in sight. The group was beginning to become clearly agitated and it was obvious that some other form of transportation was going to be necessary. We started trying to flag down cars in hopes of catching a ride to our destination. Finally, a man driving a minivan from one of the other wineries stopped to give us a lift. Desperation will make people do funny things; like cramming 12 people into some random man’s minivan. Somehow we all made it, though, and after driving another mile down the road, we had arrived.
We showed up fifteen minutes after our scheduled appointment and were met with much opposition. Seems the manager didn’t want to serve us because they were closing in 45 minutes and didn’t want people to start tasting. So, after all it took to get there, we all got the short end of the stick. While we weren’t allowed to try any of the wines, the manager did allow us to loiter in the parking lot until the bus finally showed up an hour later.
That night, we had been able to get our names on the guest list at one of the clubs in the city. The place was pretty cool, with multiple levels, rooms and a variety of music. The clientele, on the other hand, left a little something to be desired. There was nary an attractive woman in the place that wasn’t part of our group. As such, I just opted to hang out with the 20 or so people that we were with, not including my sister, who went home before the club, feigning sickness.
Included in this group, was BirthdayGirl’s good friend, Lance, who happened to be gay. As the night wore on, I could tell that Lance had suddenly taken a special interest in me. He became chummier and chummier, touching me on the shoulder, buying me drinks, etc. I kept trying to make it very obvious that I was only interested in the female patrons in the club as well as trying to distance myself as much as possible from Lance. There came a point when we were sitting at a table together with a few other people and all of a sudden, I felt his hand on my knee. That was the last straw for me. I immediately excused myself from the table and avoided him for the rest of the night.
In addition to the fun I was having with Lance, BirthdayGirl was also keeping me entertained. It would appear that the alcohol had loosened her up enough to start interrogating me.
“Why is it that you never wanted to date me?” She demanded.
Crap, time to do some serious damage control.
“Well, I was at a different place in my life when I met you. I wasn’t really ready to date anyone and I especially didn’t want things to get complicated between us…” I stopped, hoping that my answer was sufficient.
“I see, well, I don’t really know how to answer that.”
Good, then hopefully we can move away from this topic as quickly as we got on to it.
Luckily, someone else walked up to us at that point and directed BirthdayGirl’s attention away from me. I sighed and ducked out to let things cool down for a bit. She found me later on and seemed to have gotten over our previous encounter because she greeted me with a kiss on the lips. Things may have been innocent the previous night, but I suddenly began to believe that that wouldn’t be the case that night.
We closed out the bar and then four of us (BirthdayGirl, two of her guy friends and I) grabbed a cab back to BirthdayGirl’s apartment. The guys were going to stay over because they were way to drunk to get home at that point. We got into the apartment and were all hanging out on the couch talking for a bit. People began to fade rapidly and soon it was time for everyone to pass out. I got up from the couch and went into BirthdayGirl’s room to get ready for bed. She came in behind me and lay down on her bed. I took off my outer shirt and left the room for a second to go to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I wasn’t five steps out of the room before one of the other guys slipped into the room and closed and locked the door. I stood there, completely dumbfounded, at what had just happened. Here was what I thought was going to be a sure thing and now I was left out in the cold. To add insult to injury, my suitcase was still in the room, the third guy had already claimed the couch to sleep on, and I was left staring at the hardwood floor with no sort of bedding what so ever. The night went from good to shit rather quickly.
Dejected, I gathered up an end pillow from the couch and a couple cushions from a loveseat and tried to create something resembling a mattress on the floor. I lay there in the dark, half my body supported by the cushions, the other half dangling onto the cold, hardwood floor, cursing my horrible luck. I didn’t sleep worth a goddamn that night and woke up the next morning, hung-over, tired, sore and stiff. To say that I couldn’t wait to get home and sleep in my bed that night would have been a gross understatement.
I made it back safely, however and quickly returned to the life I’ve grown accustomed to at home. I received calls from TheSister’sFriend and Giggles within hours of touching down. I’m supposed to get together with Giggles on Tuesday and have yet to call TheSister’sFriend back.
