This really happened.
It was Saturday night, my last night of spring break, and I was feeling decidedly odd. I was drunk, I was out in a bar, and I was wondering – should I pick someone up tonight?
I was influenced by a few different factors. First, the guy I had been seeing, though not "officially," had completely stopped talking to me last Wednesday. After I told him that I didn't want to fool around with him anymore (i.e. hook up and have sex) because I was afraid that I might fall in love with him. Which was true, to a point. I think that given time I could have fallen in love with him. But mostly, he was just weird the last time I was with him. It was only my second time having sex with him, with anyone for that matter, and I thought it was pretty good – but the next day, he didn't seem to want to touch me or do anything physical with me. I figured that not fooling around was what he wanted, but since he just started ignoring me after I suggested it, maybe all he wanted was fooling around, without the friendship that I thought we had as well.
The second factor was that two nights before, I had been aching for some "sweet lovin'" as I like to call it, and had picked up a guy from New Zealand. And all I can say is, well, it was SOME kind of lovin'. He was cute, but shorter than me, and I don't know how old he was either. Let's just say he went off early, then kept wanting me to "turn around" which was, considering my level of inebriation, really not going to work too well.
And the final factor was, let's face it, I was drunk and horny. Really, I'm always horny, but when I get drunk I get bold, too. Plus, it's always fun to see if I can actually succeed in picking someone up.
So basically, long story short, I decided to go for it. Hey, last night of vacation in a foreign country, might as well get a good send-off, right? Right. Plus, I was out of money and out of liquor, and it's nice to get some alcohol out of the deal, too. I was still far too sober, really.
So I got up and looked for a likely candidate. Then I spotted a guy who I met briefly earlier that night, when I was getting a drink with a friend. He'd surprised me by giving me a kiss on each cheek when he met me. I'm used to this, actually, since I lived in Spain for a year and the Spanish do this all the time, but I was surprised that a British guy did it. So I go up to him.
"Hi!"
"Hello! Didn't I meet you earlier?" he said.
"Yeah," I replied. "You're Matt, right?"
"Yeah."
"Listen, I'm broke. Will you buy me a drink?" It was the old "wounded antelope" ploy. "I'll give you sexual favors…" I said, quiet and laughing, like it could be a joke but maybe wasn't.
Well, he bought me a drink. And another. I had him hooked.
Perhaps I should explain the "wounded antelope" ploy. You see, men like to be predators. They want to go out and pick up girls. I, myself, am not pick-uppable. I pick up guys, but they do not pick up me. What I do is (and this really only works drunk) is go up and grab their shoulder. "Oh, I'm sorry, just a second. All right, I'm okay." Then release. This sets off predatory signals of "this girl is drunk and she just touched me." Often they will hang around. I hang around them and sure enough, I need them for support again. Then I just put my arm around them and use them for a "crutch." This is giving off "wounded antelope" vibes – the lion senses wounded prey and goes in for the kill. All I have to do is hang on and lean in a little until he makes his move. He's convinced that he just picked me up, whereas I have just successfully snagged my male of choice. For the night, anyway. I do not recommend this strategy for lasting relationships.
Anyway, the strategy worked like a charm with Matt. Sure enough, I leaned in a little bit and he bent down and kissed me. Score! At this point I was pretty sure I had him, plus he was a good kisser so things were really looking up. Add to that the fact that he was tall (I'm very tall, so I need a tall guy) and had blue eyes and broad shoulders, which I admit I'm a sucker for, and it looked like I might have hit the jackpot. But he also struck me as someone who wasn't going to force it, and I figured that I'd better not come on too strong and scare him off. So anyway, we kissed off and on in the middle of this crowded bar for a while, until finally he (or was it me? Doesn't matter) suggested leaving. So we went outside and down to the train station. He wanted to catch a taxi, since his hotel was about a mile away, and I had roommates. (I was not so lucky with the New Zealander, as he convinced me to take him to my hotel, which resulted in my roommate sleeping in another room and NOT being happy with me) Of course there were no taxis, and surprisingly we sat on the ground by a fence and just talked for quite a while. He was nice, funny, and really had a charming accent… despite the fact that I think the word "bloke" is about the funniest word ever and he kept saying it! Cultural differences, what can you do?
Finally we decided to walk. He tried to hitch a ride with a passing car and failed. He told me I should try while he hid in the bushes, because I'd get picked up no problem. I told him, "If I get picked up, you're staying in the bushes!" Miraculously, he did finally get a car to stop. It took us to a street right near his hotel. We walked in and took the "lift" (I was like, left? What? Oh, lift, right…) up to his room. It was small and messy. But it had a big bed, and really, that's all that was important. Apparently Matt was trying to create "atmosphere." He put on techno music, which I thought, based on my experiences, was very European and in any case, far preferable to most kinds of seduction music. (Don't ask me, I'm a heavy metal fan)
Unfortunately, by this time I had not only sobered up quite a bit, I was also feeling cold. I wanted to go for it but was a little unsure how to start, since he wasn't really taking the initiative (no pressure, how sweet! But annoying), and besides that I wasn't exactly feeling like stripping at the moment. I didn't even take off my coat, yes, I was feeling that cold.
Anyway, we finally managed to lie down on the bed. We were just kissing, and he managed to ease my coat off. My reaction to this was, "Aaaah! Cold!" and I dove under the covers and curled into a little ball.
"You're really that cold?" he asked me.
"Yeah"
I think he was kind of puzzled as to what to do. I turned over to face him and said, "You can try to keep me warm, though."