Pour Some Sugar on Me

Thursday night date with Ivy League went very, very well.

But Saturday night was just loads of fun.

We began with me picking him up to bring him to the Def Leppard concert. Yes, you heard that right. Def Leppard. Absurd and cheesy, but I love that band. I got a lot of. "My god you are so hot" comments from him. This is honestly the best thing to hear. I loved it.

As we were walking to the Will Call booth, a crowd of guys called out to me and said, "We have one reserved seat - ditch that guy and come with us."

My reply: "Not a chance."

We got beer, but didn't rush in because Bryan Adams was on stage. We stood in the food area and talked and drank. A comment from him worth mentioning that threw me:

I'm willing to take this on - dogs, daughters and all. (He's allergic to dogs. Daughters we aren't sure about yet.)

So we go in - and we're watching Bryan Adams sing "Summer of 69." And Ivy League is watching me. Of course, he catches me looking at him (Sweet Jesus that profile!) so we're doing this weird flirty appreciation of each other.

We're holding hands, listening to "Heaven" (wow that takes me back to 9th grade and all that that implies) and this is soooo cheesy but yet so sweet and nice. I just go with it. We laugh at ourselves but nobody is making a move to stop that says I am too cool to be doing this.

We head back out of the amphitheatre while Def Leppard sets up. Somehow, the UK comes up in conversation, and I mention the whole "I am going to the UK next month" with the best nonchalance I could muster. He says, no kidding - when and why? So I explain that I like to do something interesting when my daughter is with her dad over specific holidays - so as to not get sad about her not being with me - and I thought a trip to London for a week to visit friends would fit that bill.

And so he says, "Damn. I wanted you to come to Vegas with me that week. But wow London. That's cool. "

CRAP. I just bought that damn ticket. As good as it was to sound very cool saying I am going to London for a week, now I have the pleasure of missing out on out of town travel with him. My friend S and I discussed this two weeks ago when I was pondering the trip - and she did warn me that this could happen.

I didn't have to act disappointed at missing out on a trip with him, I think it was obvious. But we both laughed and said, ahh its for the best. He explained he wanted to ask me about this last week but was not sure how to do so, since we have only been on a few dates.

I am very giddy about this.

We end the conversation with him making this cryptic remark:

If anything changes on your London trip, my offer still stands.

Now, I may like him a lot at this point. In fact, I know I like him too much. And I may not be as balanced about him as I need to be, but I am damn sure I am going to London b/c the ticket is unrefundable and its LONDON. Nothing is going to change on my London trip.

We go back in and watch Def Leppard. Fun fun fun. Lots of mullets in the crowd. Good people watching. Joe Elliott is still very hot after all these years. Hysteria plays and I think of Yorkshire hottie (who has been incommunicado a bit since the purchasing of the UK ticket.) "Love Bites" was a good song to dance to. "Photograph" is the best song of the concert for me, but the crowd loved "Pour Some Sugar on Me". We are on our feet the whole time, and Ivy League seems to genuinely be having fun.

We leave, make some new friends in the parking lot who give him beer, and like total dorks listen to the post concert calls and Def Leppard songs on 96 rock. So fun.

We head to a dueling piano bar downtown (his choice but this could not be more perfect) and proceed to have even more fun. He gets wedding drunk, and is very, very smiley at me. (God he has beautiful teeth.) He's talking, and I am watching him, and I realize that I love who I am with him - this weird mixture of being comfortable and exhilarated (mmmmm chemistry.) This combination just has not happened with me before.

He's so into PDA and being flirty and happy. This guy is not the playa I thought he was. He keeps looking at me, and finally says:

I really, really like you. There's so much more I want to say but I am afraid you won't process it or that you will take it for granted. I'll leave it for the next time we are together.

I don't know what to say. He's sitting there with his liquor drink and a cigarette in his mouth and his hair slightly graying on the sides and he's looking like a movie star and I am feeling like I have lost this battle about him, that I am not going to be able to be cool anymore, that I am invested in this, that this is the male version of me that has been missing all my life. Timing sucks but oh well.

He sees me looking at him and processing all this in my vodka addled brain and says: Don't fight this. Embrace it.

So my reply is: I am in this. Do you understand? In this.

He smiles...

More later, as the night didn't end there.