Monday night

Monday night I had a date -- or a sort-of date, I'm never really sure how you tell -- with Jade.

I got to the bar earlier -- a strange little place that Jade had described as like wandering into a time warp and finding yourself in the south of France in the 1960s. She's suggested the bar for it's table football, but hadn't bargained that they would be showing the USA/Czech Republic world cup game. I got there fairly early so took advantage of the happy hour. I was nervous about meeting her, I couldn't concentrate on the football and without my glasses I couldn't read the team names or scores on the TV. Sometimes I forget I need glasses since I almost never wear them -- Armani frames and they're probably buried under my desk, somewhere. That's the thing though, I'm short-sighted and rarely required to read anything at a distance -- it's debatable if I even need them for driving.

Anyway, the bar had a great atmosphere -- a sort of mediterranean feel that with the heat outside reminded me of surfing in Portugal last summer. I was clean cut, well dressed and carefully looking at every girl who walked in, and matching them to the pictures of Jade in my head I was struggling to remember. One girl in particular I was fairly sure was her, I made eye contact with her deliberately and smiled, but she showed no signs of recognition. I tried again when she passed me on her way back from the bar, and still she didn't catch on. I watched her sit down outside as if she was waiting for someone, and wondered how long I should leave it before approaching her. I was still early and enjoying a cold bottle of Brahma, so figured it could wait.

Then Jade walked in, we recognised each other instantly and she hugged me enthusiastically. I asked her if she wanted a drink or to go somewhere else -- since we wanted to talk, we went somewhere quieter.

We had a good evening, a few drinks, lots of conversation and as these dates tend to go I found her interesting and appealing. After a couple of hours of drinking and talking I asked her if she wanted another drink, it seemed natural enough to want to carry on. She said actually she had to shoot, she hadn't eaten and stuff but it was really great meeting me. Hugged me enthusiastically again, and left. I remember standing for a minute with a feeling like "What the hell just happened?". I was a bit put out -- like, sure she had to eat but what about me? She knew I had come straight from work, couldn't we have eaten somewhere together? But anyway, she said she'd email me and I went home.

Politely, I sent her an email when I got in -- just a line or two saying I was home safely, despite getting a bit lost on way to the station -- and I'd talk to her later. Maybe that's against date rules, perhaps I should have left it a few days but I thought it only polite to let her know I was safe and it wasn't like I was calling her. I didn't hear anything in reply on Tuesday, nor for most of Wednesday until it ocurred to me that although I got home safely, how do I know if she did? I sent her an email saying I expected she was busy, but just checking she got home safely. She replied a short while later saying she'd just been really busy -- so busy she was able to reply within about 30 minutes, apparently. She also said she was going away but she'll give me a buzz when she gets back.

What bothers me is it just feels like she's acting like Philippa. We meet, we get on well, we have a good time, we say we'll meet up again soon and then nothing. If someone didn't like me I'd rather they say "I had a nice time but I'd rather not see you again" or "I don't want a relationship right now" to which I'd respond "That's cool, I'm happy to be just friends" -- since I am. Instead I'm left wondering what I do wrong -- should I actually ignore them first for a couple of days, and not let them know I'm safe? Maybe it's before that, maybe the date themselves just aren't interesting enough -- although Philippa can hardly criticise me for the few hours we had together which involved taking her to the hospital.

It's difficult to know what to make of Jade. She told me a lot about herself which given the length of time I've known her may or may not be true -- I've no reason to believe she didn't go to Oxford, isn't a lwayer, and doesn't actually live right round the corner to where I work. Scratch that last one, that one I'm not sure about it -- she mentioned the road, which is quite well known in art circles or whatever in London -- and I said "hey small world, I work [here]", which as I say is right round the corner. She has never commented on this -- not wow, that is funny, not I don't know your road, no comment at all. Like perhaps she doesn't live there at all...

I really don't know what's going on. And if you're wondering about Philippa, I left the ball in her court the last time I asked her if she was working at the weekend and she didn't reply. I guess it was going nowhere.