5:39PM: Me: "Hey, are we on for dinner? Otherwise, I'm heading back. Lol."
5:41PM: DC: "Ah ok can. Let's meet for dinner."
5:42PM: DC: "Is there anything at the lawn cafe? Will be less crowded?"
5:43PM: Me: "Haha. Okay."
Something was up with the heavens yesterday. I went out on a date. Haha.
He messaged me the other day. We chatted for a bit. Yesterday, he messaged again.
We agreed to have dinner. His building was right next to mine. It's the first time I'm meeting someone from this area. It turns out he just started work in the area two weeks ago.
Five minutes to 6PM, I left my office, crossed the street over to his building and headed to the open space in front of his building to wait. Few more minutes passed by, then I saw the familiar face from the app walking towards me with a smile on his face.
I reached out my hand to shake his and said, "Nice to meet you. So shall we walk to the food place?"
One thing to like about the area where I work is it's conducive for after work jogs or walks. Since most of the office people have left for home, we only saw a few people as we made our way to the cafe.
Dinner was pleasant and enjoyable. It felt exactly like how a first date should be. Conversation flowed between us naturally. Effortless. I talked about myself. He talked about himself.
The more I listened to him, the more I learned about our similarities. I told my best friend Tey that it was somewhat weird - he's a morning person, he likes to keep himself busy, he goes to the museum and theatre, he likes nature walks, he likes walking. When he started talking about the hikes and walks that he has done around the island, it didn't sound foreign to me as I was familiar with all the places he talked about. In fact, I've even done some of the routes that he did.
After dinner, there was that usual game of trying to sense whether this evening should continue or to call it a night.
In our case, it was the former.
We walked around one-north area in a leisurely pace. The neighbourhood just gets a different vibe at night. The whole place becomes deserted. Except for a few joggers and the noise from a nearby construction site, it was a nice area for an after dinner walk.
There was a new mini-park close to our office and we decided to check it out. Conveniently, there was a bench in one area. We sat down and got comfortable. At first, there was some space between us. In the next few minutes, it was a game of nonverbals and body language. After some time, the space between us disappeared and we sat next to each other.
For about an hour, we just talked about all sorts of things. He talked about how for his uni immersion, he went to one of the developing countries in rural Africa. To me, that was a sign that this guy was different. Listening to him talk about his two months in Africa with joy and wonder and fondness certainly upped his pogi points.
We looked at the night sky and talked about how we rarely see a sky full of stars nowadays. I talked about my last memory of seeing the pitch dark night blanketed by stars. He talked about his own memory of a similar experience.
It was an evening that could still go on for hours.
But then, I checked the time and it was time to head back. I didn't want to look like a zombie today.
More than that, it wouldn't be smart for me to get deep into this. Not at this moment. The reason is meant for another post.
I just don't think it's wise. And so, despite last night being a good memorable date, I still haven't messaged him this morning. He hasn't messaged as well. Maybe he's waiting? I'm not sure.
In any case, thank you for that nice date. It's something I haven't had in a long time. I wish we met two years ago.
