Dude #14

Where do I start to explain about Dude #14?

It’s a couple days before Christmas and I get “superswiped” by someone who’s current location is within my usual range, but lives in a different state. Not even an adjacent state. I’m flattered and a little confused, but figure what the hell, why not find out the story?

I swipe right and ask what brings him to my area if he lives where he lives. Turns out that he’s originally from here, often travels back here for business and to visit his family, who are all still here. He’s in town for Christmas.

So we start talking and damn but if we aren’t incredibly like-minded, in similar places in our lives and looking for pretty much the exact same thing when it comes to dating and “relationships”. I’ve found this to be a rarity. On the up side, we connected and if nothing else, we’ve both made a new friend. On the down side, he lives about 1000 miles away (literally, I google mapped it), Christmas is fast approaching and he’s headed home on the 28th.

Long story short, we manage to coordinate to meet up for a drink the day after Christmas. In my mind, we’ve already made friends and are having great conversations, so why not meet in person when we have the chance?

We met at a place local to me that has a heated tent set up — not open air, but it’s too cold for that in the winter where I live anyway. It’s set up with good social distancing and turned out to be a great atmosphere to talk and get to know someone. We chatted over a drink and a couple apps and as I expected, had a fantastic conversation, covering a variety of topics. If you’ve been following my adventures here, you may remember that I really crave good conversation. Also not surprising — we had great chemistry.

By the end of the evening, we are in agreement that we have officially hit it off and want to see each other again, which we can do when he’s in the area again. We’ll keep in touch to whatever degree feels good in the meantime. No expectations or obligations. Since neither one of us is looking for something serious or exclusive, this is a perfectly reasonable agreement.

When we were ready to go, he walked me to my car and we kissed. He made sure I was safely in my car before walking across the parking lot to his. All in all, a good evening and a connection I’m very grateful to have made.