#67: Cold

I closed the door behind her and stomped back upstairs to my AirBNB. That was a second date and she had come into my apartment but wouldn’t kiss me; when I’d tried she pulled away and tried to admonish me by saying “it’s not important.” (T)

I’d been in Poland for five days at this point and had set about on my number farm. Numbers had came and went and I’d been on a few dates but nothing held the spark which suggested that something was going to happen during my time there (T). That was fine, in all honesty, but something had indeed lit the spark to my anger: a Daygamer from America – Runner – had just flown into town and we had winged a bit earlier that day. As I was going off to this date, he had begun an idate, and he looked on for a SDL. Now, I know it’s petty, but I was furious.

I lay on my bed watching a few Youtube videos letting the rage and stress build up (T) until my phone buzzed: it was Mr R, a local Daygamer, who wondered if I wanted to go for a walkabout. He wasn’t doing any Daygame himself at the time but was happy to wing with me and I was mightily grateful; having someone there to share the sessions with had changed the experience entirely. His message was just the thing I needed and so I threw on my boots and jacket and hit the streets again, walking up Chmielna and meeting him outside Green Caffe Nero.

I related my date back to him and he nodded along before I finished it with:

“I know there are some tarts out tonight. I just have to find them.”

And so I went about rage approaching, jumping on anything that caught my eye and gave me a whiff of a lay. I closed in quickly, went for kino straight away, and began to enquire about logistics before either going for the idate – I had one coffee to nowhere in Tarasy – or filtering them out (T). A few sets came and went and not before long we were back outside Terasy and were crossing the road.

As we got into the square a girl walked past us very fast and I got a quick look at her face.

“There’s something dark about her,” I said to Mr R (T), before heading after her.

I rounded Wiktoria and she came to an abrupt halt, before I teased her for her angry walk.

“Yes I have a kind of androgenous temperament,” she told me.

I gave her a very quick look up and down and decided she was definitely a girl and that she just meant it as a metaphor.

“Oh so you like straightforward and direct men… like me?” I replied, smirking.

I noticed that she had slightly ginger hair and pointed it out to her.

“No it’s golden blonde,” she said.

“Golden blonde? Let me see.”

And so I took a full handful and had a look (T). All the boxes had been ticked off so far and so I invited her for a drink – no, she didn’t feel like drinking – or a tea or coffee then – no, she didn’t want those either. But she would walk for a bit.

Fine, I thought to myself, I’ll walk you around the square then ditch you quickly.

I texted the same to Mr R and we set off, and in all honesty that was my plan, until I noticed her long nails.

“I like your nails, are they real?” (I couldn’t resist!)

“Yes,” she said, as I took her hand and had a close look at them, plus a decorative ring she was wearing.

Then I asked her what kind of guys she liked and she told me without hesitation (T). That was a good piece of information right there: she wasn’t messing around by telling me “oh it’s just personality” or simply that she “doesn’t know.” She was giving me the information I needed to seduce her. I can’t remember exactly what she said, but she mentioned creative men and people who are interested in art and fantasy books, so I played that angle and went off talking about Cthulhu and Lord of the Rings.

Then I thought about my next decision: I didn’t think that she would go to a bar or cafe with me. She’d already said no to that and so I didn’t want to dredge up the same response to the same question. At this point I was still steaming over Runner and so I stumbled upon the best idea I’d ever had: just walk her straight to my apartment. I mean, she’d given me all those physical green lights anyway… why not try?

To say I was nervous would be a lie. I was somewhere between being indifferent and caring a little bit. This was a throwaway set. I’d already decided she wouldn’t come on a proper idate, and she’d told me she was busy for as long as I was still in town. It meant now or never. Back to mine it was! There was only one thing I could do and so even if she baulked at coming inside, what else was there to do?! (T)

It took us about 20 minutes to reach the threshold. I reached into my pocket for my keys and the moment of truth crept up on us.

“Is this your place?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes, I thought we’d have some tea for fifteen minutes.”

“You know I can turn… quickly.”

“That’s fine, I don’t want to get hit,” I said as she followed me inside slowly and up the stairs.

“And I’m cold, you know. I’m a cold person.”

“That’s fine,” I said, as I put the keys in my front door and went inside.

Mission accomplished, we were indoors.

I made two cups of tea and we both sat down, though she wouldn’t take her shoes or coat off, which was understandable given the speed of it all.

I won’t go into much detail here but the LMR took about 45 minutes to bust: after a bit she sat closer to me; I reached down and put a hand under her top and squeezed her boobs and she had no qualms about it; after a few attempts we kissed; then I slid a hand down her trousers and fingered her. As the conversation went on I dropped in more and more DHVs so that she understood me to be a very interesting person; there was all the comfort I needed.

All of her resistance crumbled and she started making logistical barriers rather than character based barriers (T). She said she hadn’t shaved and she hadn’t had sex in two years and I waved them aside. Once she’d had her pre-sex-toilet-psyche-up I had my +1. In the PSI I found out that she was 21, bi-sexual and had had sex with two girls and one guy (T).

I checked my watch as we got dressed and saw that it had been about 1.5 hours from meet to lay.

Yours unfaithfully,

Thomas Crown