Funny story. After two weeks of not hearing from Mystery Man, and driving within a half mile of his house and to our mutual swimming hole, I decided to invite him for a dip. Pride be damned! Might as well be friendly, since we may end up in the pool or Walden at the same time in these thawing months.
My gal pal encouraged me to just give him call, so I went for it. First the phone wouldn't ring, it seems I'm always trying to call him from inside buildings made of cement, and once it did, it seemed to cut out mid-ring. So finally I went outside, the phone rang, but went straight to voicemail.
Okay, I told myself, this means I wasn't supposed to push it. I didn't leave a message. My friend suggested that perhaps Mystery Man's college age child was home from school for Spring Break and he was busy. I thought to myself, so busy he forgot how to use his fingers to text me over two weeks? But I know, it's another kidless weekend ~ they're with the wasband ~ and it tends to accentuate my aloneness, even though my life is busy and full. Of course other people's lives may be hectic or have homecomings of which I have no knowledge.
I swam for over half an hour, while my gal pal did weights. We met up again in the decadently delicious therapy pool. I'd submerged a few minutes before my gal pal. Mid-way between stretching and relaxing, I noticed that a man had slipped silently into the water beside me on the bench. We made eye contact several times. He had tootsie pop eyes; green on the outer rim and brown in the center. His hair was short, wet and curly. I shifted into relaxed mode, one more glance, he was still glancing at me and I down shifted into total relax mode. Next time I opened my eyes, gal pal was there (and so, still was the tootsie pop man).
My pal and I caught up on each other's lives and discussed our families and fitness. Tootsie pop eyes kept looking at me/us for another fifteen minutes, according to my pal, as I was consciously not looking at him by this point. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, wouldn't it be funny if he was Mystery Man, only since I met him only once, after shoveling for 3-4 hours, and he was wearing clothes, a hat and glasses when I met him, he now looks too different for either of us to be sure? My gal pal was having the same thought, because as soon as he left, all we did was discuss his staring and glancing at us. Thank goodness we didn't have the Mystery Man chat!
After we showered, dressed and ascended to the front door, I checked my cellphone. I reported to her that Mystery Man hadn't returned my missed call, nor had he texted anything. We hugged, and agreed to meet swim together next weekend.
I got in my car, thought about what I'd make for dinner (yogurt, berries, nuts and cereal) and wondered if I dare stop at a Cafe in the center of Mystery Man's town for a cup of coffee, as it's a short walk to his place. Instead (remembering the coffee I made, and was still in the pot on the counter, before my two hour hike with the dogs in the morning), I decided to wait on the impulse and to drive home. When I arrived home it struck me that there may be many times I could cross paths with Mystery Man and we did seemingly have a great deal in common, so just to put all doubt (on both fronts) to bed I made the choice to text him the funny story (what if he had been Tootsie Pop eyes?)!
In three sentence I conveyed these crumbs: I'd swum and invited him to join me, wasn't sure if I saw him there or not, and didn't know if he was interested in me. Then I left my phone on silent, turned off the house phone, too, and watched the last three episodes of House of Cards!
When I was done with HOC, and my bowl of breakfast for dinner, I checked my phones. My darling neighbor had invited me up the hill for dinner and I'd missed it (on the home phone). And ~ drumroll~ Mystery Man wrote a lengthy reply.
Turns out he didn't return from his Cali convention until Tues PM, came back to a pile of work, and to having his daughter surprise him by coming home for Spring Break! He joked about Tootsie Pop eyes and said he'd call me very soon to talk about his interest in me (that's a good thing, right?)!
So I guess, either way, I'll hear from him again. Perhaps he'll become a pool-swim buddy or perhaps we'll slowly get to know each other. Either way, I got out of my Pride and Prejudice mode of feeling I should be pursued or Mystery Man was nothing but an arrogant so-and-so. And, for further consideration, there is always Tootsie Pop eyes to investigate next time we swim~ ha!
That is my funny story, or maybe it's me telling on myself, on multiple levels. Either way it made me laugh and smile. It was a lovely Sunday full of hikes, swims, chats and episodes of HOC, can't beat that!
Good Night, Mermaid Lizzies and Mermen Darcies everywhere, G'night!
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