Round Three

I visited my long time friend with whom I have a pleasantly bubbling science experiment of late (I've been calling her Karen here). The back story is in previous posts. This was the first time we've seen each other since we expressed our mutual curiosity in each other. 

Day 1

For my first night in her town initially we had plans to hang out alone but she switched it up last minute. I wasn't a fan of the new plan. It was dinner and drinks with her best friend female roommate, her gay friend (neither of whom I've met) and my oldest friend. I appreciated her consideration in supplying me with back up to counter her special forces unit. It was clear that I needed to charm her, the best friend, and the gay friend enough so he says something like "Girl! if you don't I will!" and she says "You bitch! you get all the good ones." It went well. I did a decent job all around except I think I may have spent more effort on her friends than I did on her.  This whole thing is so precarious I really need her people on my side. We went our separate ways at the end and hugged goodnight... damn. Then I went to agonize the details over beers with the dude I've been friends with for 25 years.

Day 2 

I met Karen at her job when she was finishing up so we could drive back to her place together. She suggested we make dinner followed by a bar hop. Sounds as though the likely post-hangout girl talk session was favorable. We made dinner the mood was playful and good. Her roommate came home and asked me for a male's perspective on a dude she has a run in with, awesome! Karen and I killed 2 bottles of wine then went out. We happened on a bar with a jazz hip hop group performing that was really great. Drank/talked/drank etc until 3 am.

We arrived at her door. Despite our long history, I felt it would be cheating to skip the awkward outside the door posturing that occurs at the end of any good first date. I pulled her aside and explained this, she played along for a minute and said "Can we just go inside already? Its freezing!" More wine... Smoking on the balcony we started in analyzing how we're friends and this is going to change the dynamic all over with us, and all our mutual friends, blah blah blah. I grabbed her waist at a pause and kissed her. We went up stairs pretended to watch television while having a PG13 make out session then passed out. 

In the morning she made me breakfast then we made the 2 hour drive back to Philly together (our home towns are Philly suburbs, and she had some family stuff going on). We talked the whole way on relationship failures of the past, ugh. We are both extremely jaded. I kissed her goodbye and hopped out of the car late for work. We left it as "we'll see what happens." We also devised an absurd cover story to tell our friends to keep the gossip wheel from grinding us into a paste. One couple went so far as to say " We're rooting for you guys, we need a new power couple" WHAT?! No thanks.

I'm not emboldened enough to claim that I have successfully transversed the friendship gap, but I do seem to be on the way.

The conclusion

Wednesday night wasn't all that crazy. My ex ended up rescheduling the exchange of my left behind belongings. That was a relief, unfortunately its only postponed to next week.

I met with Karen as planned and our married friends went to dinner with us. They later went home leaving Karen and I to ourselves. We had drinks at the bar where Josh works did a little after hours then went to my apartment. I lost my nerve once again and had another night of spooning with her. 

I'm really not that much of a pussy, but there's a long standing, quality friendship here. The vibes are hard to read, and too forward of an act could undermine the trust and utterly betray the friendship. I don't want that, its creepy and I'm already feeling like a creep. Besides spooning with a beautiful girl is never a bad thing. We woke up spent a lot of time lounging around, it was so comfortable and pleasant. I felt like a million bucks and could not yet feel the hangover. Which took over the minute she had to leave and kept me in bed until 2 pm with the smell of her hair on the pillow.

Fast forward to Friday night. I met Karen and friends for dancing. But blew off other friends at a birthday party.  I've also been blowing off  Julie for over a week now. Fun night, went back to married couples house where Josh happens to live. Typical house drinking after-party. Around 4:30 everyone's milling around getting ready to go home. Karen asked me if I was staying...

I lingered until we were alone. 

Then I dropped the bomb.

I said "I noticed lately that I may have a slight crush on you, and feel weird about it. And rather than be shady and plotting I thought I'd tell you, and be up front about it." She felt similarly and said she was glad I told her and its not that weird. A lot of awkward silence ensued and she asked me to spend the night. I did but still couldn't bring myself to kiss her. We had some intermittent talking and just went to sleep, more spooning. I suck. Its too much and too weird, plus I still have Julie to think about.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Despite trying to stay single and not be a serial monogamist, It seems like I'm hoping from casual encounter to casual encounter, and now am involving a close friend.

My plan is to clear the decks of women, not get involved at all. And look forward to slowly seeing where my crush on Karen goes now that its in the open. She lives 2 hours away and our work schedules aren't even slightly similar. Its a pretty pitiful outlook at best. I don't know why I'm bothering, except for the fact that we've never had any type of timing to get together, and I've always had a thing for her. The timing is bad now but fuck it, I want to give it a shot anyways.

Tomorrow is a recipe for crazy.

Well, 

The rundown goes like this:

Wake up in the am for the cable guy, clean, laundry mat, dye hair.

Pretty mundane, this is where it gets crazy.

I have to go to my ex's to get some stuff I left behind. It will undoubtedly be heady. I had plans afterwards with Julie whom I'm loosely seeing. I cancelled them because Karen, a long time friend who I spent a fantastic New Years with will be in town.  I may have felt a spark between her and I but didn't act on it at the time. I think this is how the shtick with different hats and different women starts. 

So far Karen and I have dinner then drinks plans, but I don't know if its a solo mission or if we're involving more friends. Its all weird, crazy, and uncertain being as we've been strictly friends for the past twelve or so years. I don't think she's clued into what's going on in my head. However to all of our mutual friends my sudden interest in her is painfully transparent.

There is a wild card in the mix too, my very good friend Josh will possibly be around. He and Karen dated briefly years ago and he's never given up hope (he has a few girls in this category). He and I spoke on this and its all fine. Josh has a total disregard for dude rules and definitely fucked me over with a girl in the past. Even so I could see him maneuvering to keep Karen and I from having a chance to get cozy. 

Tomorrow is going to be wild. For good or bad I can't say.