Stella Date

Tuesday afternoon I went out with Stella after she cancelled on me the prior week due to an alleged car accident. I did confirm that she was in an accident, had totalled her parent's car, and that she had injured her back in the process. I kept my original "guns and dinner" game plan in place, though I wish I had done a few things differently.

I picked Stella up at her apartment around 4pm and we headed to the gun range, which is by Andrew's Air Force Base. She looked cute. She had on jeans, a v-neck t-shirt and flat shoes which worked out well for me (I had on work boots with a huge heel and we were the exact same height, she has to be 6' tall). I hadn't told her what we were going so she kept trying to guess. We passed a sign for an equestrian center and she said "Are we going horseback riding?", and I said "Yes, I'm a cowboy, excellent guess." Then we passed the equestrian center and she realized I was kidding. When we got near Andrew's she said "Are we going on a plane?" and I said "Yes, we're going sky diving out of Air Force One, are you wearing the right shoes for that?". This went on and on until we pulled into the parking lot of the range, which looks like any other non-descript warehouse. Stella turned to me and said "You didn't just kidnap me, did you?"

I explained what we were doing and Stella was psyched. She said "This is way better than what I guessed you had planned, which was making ships inside bottles." Did I mention she has a great sense of humor?

Anyway, Stella was a pretty good shot. She asked a ton of questions, she wanted to know how everything worked, the differences in the guns and ammo, targets, etc. I think she had a good time. There were people around us who heard me giving her instructions. While she was shooting I was standing behind her and the guy in the lane next to me leaned back, looked at her, turned to me while shaking his head and said "Good luck, man.", then went back to blasting away with whatever hand-cannon he was shooting (his gun was rattling my fillings, I think it was a Bazooka).

We finished shooting after an hour then drove to my house to drop off the guns before going to dinner. It's here that I kind of lost the initiative. For some reason I got a little shy and my game fell to shit.

At my house I got somewhat uncomfortable, or at least I was not my usual outgoing self. I didn't want her to think I brought her there to hookup, so I kind of rushed her in and out. She wanted to look around my house, but I just did a two-second tour then we went to Cork for dinner.

Cork was OK. I had never been there before, and Stella went to culinary school and is literally a pro when it came to food and wine, so I figured that was a good place to go. I should have stuck to my tried and true "shoot and cook dinner at home" itinerary. Once in the restaurant I felt like I was no longer in charge. It's hard to explain, but let me give an example.

I knew she liked wine so I looked through the wine list and picked a bottle. My selection was a mid-price range Spanish red wine, something I know nothing about, but the wine list description seemed mild, a safe bet. The waiter brought it to the table, opened it, then poured me a taste. I swirled it around in the glass, took a taste, and it was awful. It tasted "corked" to me, like it had turned to vinegar. I've made mass-quantities of homemade wine before and know first-hand what bad wine tastes like, and this seemed like it was certainly bad. I've never sent a bottle of wine back before, but I turned to the waiter and said "I'm not an expert, but I think this is corked". I didn't want to come across as arrogant or like I was trying to be a big shot, but it tasted like piss. I handed the glass to Stella and had her try it. She tried to be diplomatic, and only said "Well, it's something", as if to say "I don't know if it has turned, but that's the worst bottle of wine I've ever had. Good choice.". Long story short the manager came to the table, made a big production of tasting it and overruled my call. He tried to be diplomatic, but I felt like and ass. Very nice.

I was knocked back on my heels at that point and tried to recover by ordering us a bunch of small plates (the restaurant is tapas style, you share plates). We settled on some fish and meat dishes, and washed them down with my horrific wine selection. By then I was wishing I had just cooked her dinner at home and pulled a bottle of red wine from my rack, something I was sure was good, but it was far too late for that.

Conversation went OK at dinner. We talked about everything from cheese to travel. She's an interesting girl. She's only 27 years old but has done a lot of living in that time. I enjoyed talking to her.

Dinner was not cheap, about $150. She made a sincere effort to pay for half, not just the usual lame reach for her purse move that girls do, but that was out of the question. I don't do that under any circumstances, I am happy to pay. However, between shooting and dinner I spent well over $200. That's an expensive first date by my standards. I usually like a more conservative and laid back first date because I feel it's more "me".

After dinner I drove Stella back home. When we pulled into her driveway I kind of seized up. NN The Idiot Boy had taken the helm and had signaled All Stop on both main engines. I think she sensed my apprehension (read: idiocy) and leaned over and gave me an awkward hug and kiss goodnight. I said "I had fun, let's do this again" and she said sure. I waited for her to get into her building then drove off.

It's been a couple of days now and I have neither sent nor received any texts or calls from/to her. She knows I am away on business until Saturday, so I don't think she expects to hear from me. I thought it was best to play it cool and wait until I get back to send her a text. I'm not sure this is the right plan, but I'm sticking to it as it seems like the best course of action. If we go out again I'm going to take her out on the bike then to the fish market to pick out something to grill or cook at my house. What can I say other then "stick to what you know".