This week, a guy goes on several dates in the city only to find romance by the beach: 38, single, New York
DAY ONE
7:15 a.m. Wake up with a semi, like every morning of my adult life. I used to wake up with a semi and with anger. Two years ago, my then-wife cheated with a hedge-fund guy in London. She met him at a conference that I told her to go to. Found out from a friend at said conference who saw her. It was allegedly a one-night thing. I asked for a divorce almost immediately. Trust and loyalty are everything to me. Now I’m mostly fine.
8 a.m. Shower, shave, put on a gray custom suit I wear too many times a week. Uber to work, since it’s too hot to walk a single block in a suit. I’m a marketing director at a major streaming platform.
12:30 p.m. Meeting about creative partnerships. The word synergy was used over 100 fucking times, seriously.
4 p.m. Go over my schedule. I’m trying to date like it’s my job. I wanted a girlfriend to share camping and traveling to Europe with this summer. But summer’s here and I got nothin’. Not giving up.
7 p.m. Wine bar in Nolita for my second date with Elena. She’s 34. A photographer with some part-time corporate job I can’t remember. I wasn’t sure about Elena’s energy on the first — she has masculine energy. She looks beautiful tonight. Dark curls, my favorite. Tattoos up her forearms. She laughs frequently, but maybe too loudly? I tell her how my nephew slept over last week and lost his hamster somewhere in my high-rise building, and she’s howling. Endearing? Annoying? Unclear.
9:30 p.m. After our second bottle of wine, she’s staring. I stare back. Is this a blinking contest? On our first date, we kissed. It was sweet, nothing crazy. The wine bar is very busy, so I don’t want to kiss now, even though it seems like that’s what she’s asking for with her unblinking eyes.
11 p.m. At her place nearby. The tiniest studio I’ve ever been in. Truly a closet. Plus a cat that hates me from hello. We fuck. It’s fast and so sweaty that, when I go down on her, my forehead and her thighs slip on each other. I don’t mind, but everything is very wet. I wear a condom, as always. It’s good sex, but not intimate at all. I’m not sure we have the right chemistry.
Midnight Uber home shortly after we both come. Still hot as balls out.
