The saga ends

After my last post, the pretzel guy calls later that night. I screen both calls. Then a text to meet up in the city. Then another call. I finally answer with an annoyed, "Whuuuuuuuuuuuut? I'm home already. We could have hung out earlier when I was out at happy hour." So we go back & forth: he didn't want to meet me with all my friends around, I didn't want to meet up with him alone coz of all his off-color comments, he says it's just the way he jokes, I tell him that it's funny a couple times but then girls think you're a perv, he apologizes and he'd still like to meet up & that he's coming to the city, tell him I still don't want to meet up alone--sounds like too much of a date and I'm not big on dates, he says don't think of it as a date, let's just go get coffee. I submit & tell him just to meet him at the bar around the corner from me.

Turns out he's harmless. Just a regular guy who is ready to settle down. He was easy to talk to, but he managed to interlace a series of queries that are straight from a "how to find a girlfriend" handbook. What kind of music I like, do I cook, do I like dogs, do I like sports, etc. After he asked me if I liked to cook, I asked him if he had a list of questions in his back pocket that he was working from. Sheepish grin, then he jokingly reaches back & feigns a search for the list. The only common links that surfaced were that we both liked playing Scrabble and "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." (He gave me Vince Vaughn, I gave him Richard Gere, then I fumbled on Gene Hackman.)

He sent one final text--"thanks, had fun hanging out"--but I didn't respond. He was a nice guy, we had a good talk (interview), and I feel a little bad for poking fun and pre-judging. But I still hate dating. The end.