Meeting DualDrew

So I met a cute boy on the weekend.

Something that always stresses me out when meeting someone off the internet is the fear of not recognising them despite having exchanged photos. I hate it.

Photos are never enough to be sure (really, before meeting someone, we should exchange photos of ourselves looking a bit unsure and confused because THAT’S the expression we’re all wearing when we’re eyeing off strangers and thinking ‘Is that them? Is THAT them?!”).

I texted Drew before his plane landed: “Coming to your gate, don’t go anywhere :)” so at least we would have a contained location in which to find each other.

I watched people coming off the plane, then I saw him, or I thought so. I gave him a quizzical look, he gave me a quizzical look. I half smiled, unsure. He half smiled.

“Oh,” I thought. “Yes!” and relaxed.

Then he passed me and kept walking. WTF?!

“Are you going to walk right past me?!” I accused him.

He turned. Laughter, relief, awkwardness. Then hugs.

“I didn’t expect you to be THERE!” he said, by way of excuse.

I took his arm and off we went.

The plan was to have some champagne and snacks on my deck, walk on the beach, have lunch overlooking the surf, and then get him back to the airport. And to talk, to get to know each other a little, to give flesh to our internet personas (my spell check tells me that should be personae, but typing that makes me feel like a pretentious jerk). 4-5 hours was PLENTY of time for all that. But it wasn’t.

Drew is a complete sweetheart: Attractive, smart, funny, interesting, very open, and somehow ‘cuter’ than he seems from his blog writing. By that I mean ‘more adorable’ in a way that makes me want to sit in his lap, pet him, and call him ‘bear’ (for the record, that’s not because he’s hairy, just because I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY! Teddy-bear level adorable). We talked and talked, told secrets, laughed a lot, exchanged stories. It was so much fun.

Also, the man has some guns: wholly verified by making him flex while I felt him up.

We were so distracted by our conversation that the time flew and we didn’t actually get to lunch (I am the WORST host EVVAARRR!). Also I forgot to get him to say ‘Yes Ma’am’ in his Southern accent. But he did serve me champagne in my own home and I got to kiss a double gold star gay, so I’m not complaining *smile*.

And there’s always next time.

___

Drew wrote a completely wonderful post about our get-together from his perspective: you can read it here.