So my, uh, friend* (we’ll call her Mary. to protect her.) had a "date" last night with an acquaintance of hers who happens to be a guy.
First, let me give you some background on Mary. You should know that Mary has had an "undefined" relationship with another guy (we’ll call him John. to protect Mary.), but according to John and Mary, they are open to go on dates with other people. Now that was mostly John’s idea, and Mary wasn’t too crazy about it, but she was/is crazy about John so she went along with it. Besides, it had been all talk and no action on John’s part so she figured it was just a defense mechanism because he wasn’t sure he was ready for a "serious" relationship or whatever. OK. Back to the story at hand.
So Mary and this other guy (we’ll call him Brian. to protect Mary.) decided to meet for drinks at the Metro Bistro. Mary likes the Metro and she figured that the chances of running into John would be pretty slim. (Because even though John and Mary are supposedly OK with the other person going out on dates, it’s less awkward if they don’t actually see the other person out on a date, you know? I’m just saying.That’s what Mary told me.)
OH, how wrong she was.
So Mary was on the phone with her friend (we’ll call her Jane. to protect Mary) and Jane asked her where Mary was meeting Brian. Mary tells Jane that they’re meeting at Metro and then Jane pretty much tells her that she’s meeting another friend who is friends with John at the same place an hour and a half before Mary is supposed to meet Brian for drinks. You see where this is going, right? Friend of John sees John’s not-girlfriend at a bar with another guy and it’s going to get back to him. You know? But they (Mary and John) are NOT DATING. God, this is complicated. Anyway, so Mary gets a little frantic and Jane assures her that they’ll be out of there long before Mary and Brian are supposed to meet there.
Mary is sufficiently calmed down by this and goes for a run with her dog. When she gets back from her run, she has a text message from Jane who is at the Metro with John’s friend and according to his friend, John is on his way there to meet them. Maybe. Which means he’s probably on his way to meet them. Jane calmly suggests to the slightly hysterical Mary that she should find somewhere else to meet Brian. Mary agrees.
In the meantime, Brian was running late and wanted to push back meeting for drinks by an hour. Mary thinks this is an excellent idea and just to be on the safe side, changes the location of where they are meeting to another place, so as not to run into John or his friend or Jane. She felt very good about all this and Brian had no idea and was agreeable to it. (I should also mention that Mary is REALLY bad at giving directions and/or knowing the address of places and Brian had never been to the Metro before but had been to the other place.) Plus, the new place has GREAT margaritas.
Life is good. Mary will not run into John while she is out on a DATE with Brian. Right? Well, maybe in a perfect world.
Mary walks into this other place (we’ll call it, uh, Azul. to protect Mary.) and who does she see right when she walks in the door eating dinner? That’s right. John. Who was there with another friend (we’ll call this other friend Margaret. to protect Mary.). Well, it was too late for Mary to change venues yet again AND she was seen by both John and Margaret AND Brian hadn’t made it there yet. FABULOUS.
So Mary does what she figured any other girl in her position would do. She went to the bar and ordered a margarita. As she’s looking around the room to see if Brian is there yet, John catches her eye and motions for her to join them. She smiles and waves and says no. She’s meeting somebody. He says OK. A few minutes later, Brian walks in and meets Mary at the bar. They stay at the bar and have a really great time talking and laughing and all, but John is right in line of sight of Mary and vice versa. Mary did her best to avoid looking at John while he was still there (and she did quite an admirable job, too, I might add. I mean, that’s what she told me, and I believe her. She’s a classy dame, that Mary.) Well, after about an hour of Mary being there, John and Margaret apparently finished eating dinner and John left and Margaret made her way over to Jane and Brian and chatted with them for a few minutes before leaving as well.
Poor Mary. CLEARLY KARMA IS OUT TO GET HER.
Still, despite all that, she had a really good time with Brian. It’s just a shame that after working so hard to avoid running into John in public while out with someone else, she ran SMACK INTO HIM. That must suck. She really likes John. A LOT. And the last thing she would want to do is hurt his feelings. Unintentionally or not, and she knows how she would feel if she ran into him while he was out with another girl whom she thought he might be interested in. So now Mary is worried that John is mad at her, or will decide he doesn’t want to be her friend anymore, and she is sad about that. But, on the other hand, if he can’t be her friend anymore because of this incident, then maybe that’s all for the best, even though that thought really makes her sad. And I know what you’re thinking, "But John was with MARGARET!" Yes, he was, but Mary KNOWS that that friendship is PURELY platonic and was not threatened by it. However, it was QUITE CLEAR to Mary that John appeared to be uncomfortable with seeing her with Brian, and Mary is pretty sure that John and Brian don’t know each other, or at least don’t know each other well. John was totally unaware of any relationship between Mary and Brian, whereas Mary was fully aware of the relationship between John and Margaret. God, the drama, it’s just too much.
Anyway, all I can think is: THANK GOD THAT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN TO ME LAST NIGHT.
Oh, and Mary had such a good time with Brian, that they’re going out again on Satur to a party.
*and by friend I SO do not mean me.
Yikes, that must have been so uncomfortable for yo…er…Mary.
Yes, Mary said it was a bit uncomfortable until John left.
Um.., where do I start? Is Margaret John’s sister? Because if she is not then Mary should be fully aware that John may feel exactly the same way about her as he does about Margaret, as he claims to be the case, regardless of the fact that Mary is a million times better looking then Margaret (this is an assumption about Mary’s beauty because I have never seen a picture of her of course – nor have I seen Margaret in the flesh either).
Does John think Mary is out of his league? Or is John just enjoying the attention? Is John too scared/apathetic to make a decent move on Mary? He certainly had no trouble organising a one on one dinner with Margaret. I realise Mary is so committed to John that she won’t have any bad-mouthing of him but either John is incredibly thick or he’s just not that into her. Either way, Mary would be either permanently bored or permanently nervous if a relationship between the two of them ensued.
However, cupid has his wiley ways and stranger things have happened. One thing’s for sure. Brian has the short end of the stick because he certainly doesn’t know that Mary’s heart is elsewhere and he probably is hoping for a proper relationship with a girl who is actually available. Which Mary is not.
I wonder what John will do next? I suspect he will throw Mary a few crumbs of affection – just enough to stop her dating – but not enough to make her his actual girlfriend. He’s having too much fun having two dollars each way on this race.
Unless of course I am wrong and he crumbles and confesses undying love for Mary as a result of seeing her on a date with Brian. This could happen you know.
This is a COMPELLING blog!
More goodies shall be arriving at Chez Grace in the next week or so – exactly when are you moving?
Poor, poor Mary.
Pal of secretness, Chez Grace will be moving at the end of the month, but her mail will be forwarded to her new address. However, if you would be so kind as to send her an e-mail, she would be more than happy to send you her new address.