Time went on as I continued my work at the steak house. Then the time came for my bar manager friend’s birthday, and a group of gals in the cocktail lounge decided to throw her a party one evening and invite all her friends into the bar to celebrate.
Pretty much all of the restaurant staff came (except those that were on shift), and when I got off me and another girlfriend went to join the party in the bar, found a table and ordered a few drinks.
The place was packed! There was a lot of laughter and jokes made about how old my friend was getting, and people were generally just having a great time.
As my friend and I sat there listening to everybody I started to take a look around the bar to see who I recognized. All of a sudden I found myself eyeball-to-eyeball with her brother – the same brother who had recently purchased the brand new Trans Am (see Am I Getting My Life Together Yet?)! He was staring at me intently, and to make matters even worse, he was cuddled up close to a cute brunette!
I looked away real quick – what was his problem? Yet try as I might a few minutes later I found myself taking a quick peek back at him again. He was still staring at me!!!
I quickly finished my drink, and told my friend that I was going home.
The next day when I got to work, my bar manager friend approached me and told me that her brother wanted my phone number.
My emotions went into overdrive. He obviously had a girlfriend, and I certainly didn’t want to come in between any type of relationship. But then again, he sure was cute! So I gave her permission to share the phone number with her brother, whose name was Gary.
Later that afternoon, my bar friend came into the restaurant and told me that Gary had told her to let me know he’d be calling me the next day when he got home from work, which was about 5:00 pm.
I was a wreck the rest of that day, and into the next. Then at right about 5:00 the following afternoon, the phone rang.
Hello, I answered.
The voice that erupted over the phone was not Gary’s, but was, instead, his sister. She started coaching me over the phone: No, no, no – you’re not supposed to answer the phone like that! You’re supposed to say “hello” in a soft, sexy voice.” Yeah, right, whatever…
So we hung up, and in just about the time that it would take to redial the phone number (remember when you actually had to redial a phone?), the phone rang again. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was my friend calling back to check up on me.
Helllooo, I answered in what I perceived to be a soft, sexy voice.
There was an awkward pause, and then the voice on the other end of the line said, Uh … is Linda there? It was Gary – how embarrassing!
Although it took every ounce of self-control to not pretend I was someone else, I admitted that it was me on the phone, and then attempted to explain the previous phone call I had just received from his sister. He probably thought I was a total flake (here’s where you can insert your favorite blonde joke), but he ended up asking me out on a date anyway. Phew!
We scheduled our date for the upcoming weekend, and after hanging up I started to panic. This was my first actual “date” since I had gotten divorced. What was I going to wear??? Being a fashion-statement is not one of the first words you think about when you meet me.
But then off went the light-bulb in my head: My sister! My sister was gorgeous, and even did some modeling. We wore approximately the same sized clothes – maybe she would let me borrow an outfit?
I gave her a call, and of course she offered to help me. She arranged to come over that Friday a couple hours before Gary was to come by and pick me up. Now to just wait for the day…
The God Of All Comfort 