Being rejected and rejecting.....

It was half past seven on Sunday night of the following day and I was standing in Twenty One Kitchen and Bar @ BSC looking around for a men in black polo T’shirt with short hair.

The name of short hair black polo T’shirt object of my investigations was Tan Kar Soon, a thirty six year-old lawyer who was originally from Penang but now apparently lived in Damansara Perdana. I (since my rejection from Lawrence had let my friends know that I was now very much back on my pursuit of the-right-kind-of-boy!) had been put in touch with Kar Soon via my friends Peter early yesterday and after much toing and froing via my intermediaries I had agreed upon a date.

At five minutes to eight, just as I was beginning to wonder whether Peter had been playing some kind of elaborate joke on me, the door to the bar opened and I looked up to see a young men in a black polo T’shirt enter the room, scan the bar with one quick look and rest his gaze on me. I let out an audible sigh.

Even from a distance I could see that this young man with his short hair and tight jeans was in no way, shape or form going to make it as a replacement Lawrence but I would have to give him a go.

‘You must be George.’ He said quickly. ‘You look just like the photo Peter’s emailed. Sorry I am late. I know Peter said half past seven and I always hate it when other people are late but I was just leaving my flat when the phone rang and I knew it would be my friend Jason phoning to wish me a good luck for my date with you tonight and if I didn’t take it he would spend the whole night calling to make sure thing were going ok!’

‘It’s fine,’ I said, slightly taken aback by this sudden gush of nervous chat. ‘It’s really fine. Can I get you a drink?’

‘A gin and tonic would be great.’

‘Boodies? Bombay? Beefester? Gordon? Or Tanqueray?

Kar Soon looked confused.

‘They’re gin.’ I explained.

Kar Soon looked embarrassed as though I had caught him out, which hadn’t been my intention at all.

‘Oh, I forgot, you in the F & B industry. Just gin gin will do for me is that ok?’

‘Of course,’ I smiled. ‘One just gin gin and tonic coming up.’

Returning to the table with our drinks, I proceeded to ask lots of leading questions in a bid to show Kar Soon that I was both interested in him and his responses and in between I tried my best to be as charming and as entertaining as I could manage. But no matter how hard I tried, I found it impossible to get into the right frame of mind. For all my efforts, once again there was just no spark. No magic. Not a single indicator to alter my initial response the moment I clapped eyes on him that he was ‘a nice guy but so not for me.’

As I headed up to the bar to get Kar Soon another gin gin and tonic and wondered how I was going to make it to the end of the night, given that it was only nine o’clock and they had already scraped the bottom of the barrel to such an extent that the current topic of conversation was rumours of the ‘bersih rally’ that will take place in the city in two week times, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the numbers, I didn’t recognize because of the dual hazards of irate ex-boyfriends and cold callers, but such was the failure of this evening that I would gladly have welcomed the distractions of either.

‘George speaking.’

‘Hi, George, it’s me, Lawrence.’ I almost dropped the phone but quickly regained my composure. ‘How are you?’

‘I am good thanks.’ A bunch of lads in the bar cheered in the background. ‘Where are you? It’s very noisy.’

‘Nowhere exciting,’ I said, wishing that he’d called me a few hours earlier when I had been in a location that made it sound less like I was having the time of my life. ‘Just out for a drink with a mate,’

‘Well I’ve been thinking about our meeting yesterday and I feel bad and I was wondering if you mean what you said about us being friends?’

‘And you’re not just saying that as a ploy in the hope that something will happen between us later?’

I was about to respond but stopped myself at the last minutes. Maybe this was a trick question to see if I really had changed. The old me would have strenuously denied any ulterior motive just to get what I wanted. The new me therefore had to tell the truth even if it hurt.

‘Look,’ I began. ‘I can’t deny that I still like you but if you want us just be mates then I am sure I can learn to live with that.’

‘And it’s not like there aren’t literally thousands of better-looking boys to distract you in the meantime.’

‘I thought you said you’d forgiven me?’

‘I am just teasing you. George! And as weird as it is to be the current object of your affections – let’s not forget that at school you used to called me four eyes Lawrence – I am convinced the weirdness will wear off soon leaving behind what I hope will be a half-decent friendship.’

‘So you want to be friends?’

‘Yes, I do. And as our first act of friendship I think we should do something special.’

‘Great! Well, a mate of mine is throwing a party to celebrate the opening of his new bar in Changkat Bukit Bintang. We could go there if you like?’

‘No’ he said firmly. ‘No bars, no clubs and no fancy restaurants.’

‘So what do you want to do then?’

‘I was wondering if you were free on Wednesday evening?’

‘To do what?’

‘Can’t tell you. It’s a secret.’

‘What kind of secret?’

‘If I told you that it wouldn’t be a secret, would it?’

‘Fine’ I said, I was so thrilled at the prospect of seeing him again that I could have revealed they were going seal-clubbing and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. ‘You name the time and the place and I’ll be there.’

‘Great.’ He said. ‘Why don’t I pick you outside your condo at half past four?’

‘Sounds great to me,’

‘Good... oh, and George? You should dress as though you were going to be undertaking some kind of exercise.’

‘Exercise?’

‘Yes.’ He laughed. ‘Exercise.’

When I finally got back to the table with our drinks. Kar Soon had gone..

The table had turn the other way...