The Guy Who Was a Video Game Character:
I picked up a guy at a library. Yes, you read that right. He didn’t ask me out. This story involves me asking a guy out.
My bravery begins studying for midterms at the NYU library. Midterms are a flustering time where I usually am wandering around Manhattan in sweatpants, a hoodie and sneakers (attempting to pull off the “I just worked out look,” which is really the only time it truly is socially acceptable to walk around in sweats). I marched into the library with the intention of having an extremely productive study session. This is where I went wrong. If you want to teach yourself about residuals, don’t sit a couple seats down from the most attractive guy you have seen in your life. My studying for my applied regression exam quickly turned into me G-Chatting multiple friends of mine explaining how hot the guy a couple seats down from me was.
This man was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. Chiseled jaw, athletic build and so focused on his reading. Me gushing about this guy over chat somehow morphed into my friends talking me into trying to talk to him. One problem...we were in a library...a library where talking is prohibited. This is where I got creative. I took a piece of scrap paper and wrote:
“on the off chance you are single (then I put my phone number...which no I am not going to post on a blog online) --the girl in the grey sweater”,
(Let me also say calling my grey hoodie a sweater was a generous description of the really unfortunate outfit I was wearing.)
Then came the hard part. Slipping him the note. I now officially appreciate the guts it take for guys who have asked me out in person, because I was so nervous. The only reason I think I was able to go through with asking him out was because I had the realization that I would most likely never see this guy again and I had absolutely nothing to lose by at least giving it a shot. (I also was planning on slipping him a piece of paper which is significantly easier than straight up asking a stranger out). I decided the best way to execute this was to collect all of my things and drop the piece of paper on the table next to him on my way out of the library. I magically managed to slide the paper perfectly next to him and walk (Read: run) out of the library.
A half hour went by and I hadn’t heard from him. I texted my friends, “Oh well, at least I tried” when all of a sudden I received a text. “Not so off a chance as you thought.” I then screenshot this text and forwarded it to almost everyone in my contact list with the caption “HOT LIBRARY GUY IS SINGLE”. After texting back and forth for a bit, hot library dude and I decided to grab drinks the following night after one of his classes. Maybe two minutes after agreeing on where we were having our date I had a brief moment of panic with the realization I had zero idea how old this guy was. Since I had met him in the NYU library, there was a potential situation where I may have just asked out a guy who was still in undergrad! This is where google comes in handy. I creepily Googled him (using the recon skills I acquired from my LinkedIn date) and finally determined we had graduated the same year. With the relief of knowing I hadn’t just asked out a guy younger than me I then had my second moment of panic. What do I wear??
The next night came and I had tried on about every possible outfit combination from my wardrobe (which is predominantly black and navy blue), and after approval from my roommate who works in fashion, settled on a black skirt and black shirt (because, yes, I do live in NYC where we don’t believe color belongs in fashion). Library guy had chosen to get drinks at a speakeasy so we planned to meet outside and then go inside together. My plan was to arrive fashionably late so that I wouldn’t have to stand waiting around for him outside. Of course the subway materialized as soon as I stepped onto the platform, which meant I arrived early. I will never understand how the subway consistently does not arrive on time when you are rushing to get to class or work, but when you are trying to be late, it is on time. My solution to my early arrival was to duck into a CVS and examine sunglasses for a good 15 minutes (I didn’t buy anything).
When an appropriate amount of time had passed, I met him at the door. Tall and gorgeous as ever he escorted me inside and promptly ordered two drinks for us. This is where the date became problematic. Turns out I had asked out a former Division I college football player who had nothing to talk about other than college football. Turns out, he was even studying sports business so he could manage college football! The music at the bar was loud, so I found I was repeatedly yelling at him, “What did you say?” Clearly I shouldn’t have bothered, because after a half hour, he just went through his favorite college football teams. Instead I began to completely tune him out and plan my lunch for the next day (carrots and hummus, if you were wondering). I briefly tuned back in to hear “I decided to pick up a book only after injuring my knee during a season.” (Oh good. I am also on a date with a pseudo literate human now). Back to tuning him out and planning my lunch. After making a decision to include celery in my carrot and hummus mix I suddenly remembered that my roommates used to play a football video game that portrayed Division I college athletes as video game characters (they legally weren’t able to use the athletes names but apparently looked like the players, had the same stats and listed the same college major). I turned to this gorgeous but incredibly boring man in front of me and asked him if he in fact had one of those video game characters made after him. He solemnly looked at me and told me he did. It was about then that I burst out laughing. I was on a date with a guy who had a video game character made after him. He was not as amused and most likely thought I was insane however, to me this may have been the most entertaining thing he had told me all evening.
Reason for not seeing this guy again: My friend promised she would buy me the video game he was a character in for Hanukkah so it would probably be awkward to play that in front of him.
Asking a guy out is not a terrible idea and I can say I have officially gone on a date with one of the most attractive men I have met in my life.But I’ve learned I shouldn’t be nervous about going on a date because of a guys looks. Every guy has a flaw. In this guy’s case it was that he hadn’t decided to pick up a book, or a hobby apart from football, for that matter. But that’s OK, because he was still super hot, and at least I got a free drink out of it.