Not really a coffee date.....

As you know, for a first meeting, I will only do coffee. I had been messaging back and forth with a guy I will call "the trucker". The trucker had just moved back to Florida after spending years on the road. I sent him my number and asked him to text me.

In the meantime I was on a coffee date with "the corvette", I call him this because he manages to work into every conversation the fact that he has a corvette. Here are a few snippets of conversation:
Me: How long have you lived here?
Him: I hopped in my corvette 3 years ago, drove here and never left.
Me: What is your favorite food?
Him: Well, I like to jump in my corvette and go to the fish shack on the beach.
Me: I just read "The Road" for the fourth time...Have you read anything good lately?
Him: I always have a couple of books in the corvette in case I get bored.

You get the picture....Very nice guy but a little too obsessed with the corvette. We finish our coffee, he slides into his corvette and drives away.

Later that evening I get a text from the trucker and he asks to meet. I am feeling a little frustrated in my fishing (Harley man being the exception) and the trucker seems decent so I agree to meet him that night! I know, meeting a guy for the first time, at night, in a bar is not the smartest thing but my ego really needed a boost. We meet at a local place (not my watering hole), find a table and grab a beer. The trucker is tall and handsome in that "rugged" way. He spent the last few years on the road and now wants to settle into a more normal life. He is very intelligent, relaxed and laughs easily. I am a bit surprised when he says that he never graduated high school but I am also awed that he has decided at this stage in his life to go back to school and start a new career. If I had to crack a book open for anything other than the pleasure of a good story I don't think I would succeed. The trucker is very determined to succeed and begin the next phase of his life. I admire this - I completely understand the anxiety that comes from the unknown and the fact that he is facing it head on is inspiring.

We finish our beer and decide to go somewhere different. It turns out that the trucker is also a biker - what are the odds?? So we hop on his bike and off we go. We find another place, have a quick bite, a little more conversation and then decide to take a quick walk on the beach. The breeze is warm and balmy - a perfect Southwest Florida evening. Because I am feeling relaxed, happy and am a bit intrigued by the trucker, I decide to "make a move".....It was a good move! A few nice kisses later we leave the beach and head out. We make plans to get together again and go our separate ways.

Will I see him again? I don't know....I have made a promise to myself that I would not go out with someone a second time unless I felt some kind of "connection". I don't want to waste my time and I certainly don't want to waste the time of other people. I did feel a connection but I'm not sure I want to pursue it. I have felt very safe with my single coffee dates - no pressure, no chance of long term, no chance of getting hurt or hurting someone. With the exception of the Harley Man - who I don't consider a coffee date since I met him the old fashioned way and, by the way, have been seeing quite a bit of -  I have limited myself to one date.

Do I put myself on the line? Have I already done that? Where do I go from here??

~Annie

Next post.....Has the fisher become the fished? The hunter become the hunted?