The Art of the Anti-date

Today I went on an anti-date. We’ve all had one of those weird pseudo dates with someone we casually know. Maybe they’re a co-worker, someone you met on the Internet or a friend of a friend. Something about them arouses your curiosity but not much more. It’s a date without the production values—no shaving legs or dress shirts. Casual but still kind of cute.

His name is Beauchamp. We met briefly at some Hollywood thing about a year and shortly after found each other on myspace. We would casually e-mail back and forth about stupid things—photos on-line, work and funny things that happen to each of us. After a few attempts we finally met up.

I have to be honest—I didn’t remember what he looked like face to face and was nervous while waiting at the coffee shop. I busied myself by working on one of my short stories and playing with my hair absent-mindedly. Beauchamp showed up all smiles and dressed in a slacker cut way—unshaven to give the appearance of not trying too hard.

After a few moments of awkwardness the conversation started to flow and I realized a few things. The boy has an ego—he is that smart, that clever, and that talented. It amused me more than put me off and made me think of a Fiona Apple song, “When a girl can break a boy just because she can.” I enjoy a challenge.

And he is my type. A little bigger than most guys, more beefy, with soft looking brown hair and beautiful deep eyes. He isn’t pretty but more aggressive looking like a former frat boy. I could already imagine kissing him. One thing put me off physically but the jury’s out till I see him again and I feel so shallow about this so I’m holding back from telling people about it.

Outside of that the day was interesting more than anything—at times the conversation stalled out and Beauchamp filled the dead air with compliments, which was novel. I imagined what it would be like to kiss him and even more but I always do that. All in all it was a great self-esteem boost.

And he walked me back to the metro and gave me his card. I’m going to wait a couple days before I call him because that’s how I am. But it was fun to have some male attention for the day and makes me feel a little more confident than usual.

I don’t know where it is going yet but I’m going to trying trusting my instincts a bit more. Beauchamp is still an enigma but I’m willing to try and that is a good distraction for me.