The Hot Chocolate Guy

Several friends who are married or in relationships keep telling me to keep an open mind when it comes to dating and for the most part that is decent advice. I met M on a dating site which touted itself as being," genuine," and for those, "seeking true love." As opposed to what exactly, I'm unsure. After a few fun conversations he asked me out for coffee. Now it must be said that  Seattleites area is pretty casual in their attire. Still, I try to make a good first impression and so I wore a cute ballet neck sweater with a pencil skirt. I arrived early, ordered a tea and read a book. Then I waited. M's photos were not that great, but then again, many people, myself included are simply not photogenic. A handsome mid-thirties guy walked in and looked in my direction before veering to the other end of the cafe. A few minutes later a short scruffy guy walked in and headed towards me. In his case, photographs were much more flattering than real life. His attire consisted of gray sweatpants with large stains and holes in them, a red t-shirt with a Dungeons and Dragons type of wizard on the front, and 1980s style red  leather hightops the reminiscent of the all leather suit Eddie Murphy wore on his comedy video. To top of the ensemble, his glasses were of the 1990 engineer type, straight across on top with huge half-tinted lenses.

One problem with being a redhead is the loss of anonymity and as there were no other redheaded women in the place I stuck out. We waved at me and I waved back deciding that I needed to be less judgmental and more open minded. He sat down next to me with a huge cup of hot chocolate and before even asking my name started to discuss his epicurean dedication to the beverage while staring at my chest. When he finally paused, I said,

"So do have any other hobbies?'

"You don't need to be so rude," he snapped and continued on about his bitter divorce and his new hobby of gun collection and how he had cheated on his ex-wife but it was really her fault.  After a few minutes of this, I decided it was time to bail and I looked at my purse. At the time I almost never carried a mobile phone, but that day I had one and as I fished it out of my bag he continued on about his pet iguanas (yes, plural).

Before I could ditch him, he suddenly got up and walked away for a few seconds. I gathered my purse and headed for the door.

He was the first computer guy I went out with, but unfortunately not the last.