So we were helping Jess move today. I had organized a small army to help us move her stuff to her new and bigger apartment. I'm excited for her, she was in an efficiency and now she actually has a separate bedroom. It's really nice.
Anyway, so we bribed the guys to come out by offering Pizza and beer, but since we started at 9am Jess also offered mimosas and bloody marys as well as beer and I got donuts. It was delightful. And with our group of friends, it was, as always, freaking hilarious! Ben was drunk by 9:30am.
Anyway, so we had taken two loads to the new apartment were taking a break on her little outdoor patio area when her phone rings. It's a private number so she answers it and it's the cable company calling to set up a time to hook up her Internet in her new apartment.
There are 2 back-stories that you need to know:
1. I have very few rules in my world, but one of them is that I absolutely do not date anyone who knows my friends or work colleagues (most of the time they are the same). Anyway, I have this rule to minimize drama in my life. I don't like for my dating life to cross paths with the rest of my world-- ever -- or at LEAST until it gets serious. It's easier and waaay less drama that way.
2. In previous posts I mentioned that I dated the cable guy? Well for the past year and a half my biggest fear has been that I'd call the cable company for service and he'd be the one to show up -- and it would happen when my friends were around (see story 1).
Back to TODAY
So we're taking a break and the cable company calls. Jess, who knows I dated the cable guy, but of course has never met him, gives me a look and sees me send up a silent prayer to the PTB so before she hangs up she says, "So who am I talking to again?" She looks at me and says, "Thanks, Matt, I'll see you soon." and hangs up. Then she stares me down.. my reply is "Matt is a common name -- it doesn't mean it's Matty Fantastic...." (Which was our nickname for him).
So everyone else looks at me funny when I say that, so I jokingly say -- "Remember that time I dated the cable guy?" Ben and Adam both know what I'm talking about, but Lindsey, Dan, Zac, and Andy were clueless. I said "No seriously, remember that time I dated the cable guy? There's a 60 - 90% chance you'll get to meet him today." All the while praying that it wouldn't happen. It would be awkward. Of course Adam and Ben started making cable "installation" jokes... awesome, it was going to be awkward...
Backstory #3: Matt (I usually only refer to him a "Cable Guy" so calling him by name is weird) and I stopped seeing each other when I found out his recently ex-wife was pregnant with his baby -- and was due in a month. He went back to her and they moved to Ft Wayne for a while.
Anyway, so I was hopeful. We were on our third load and I was walking out to unload some stuff from Dan's truck when I saw the big cable truck pull in -- and Matty Fantastic was at the wheel. I don't know if he saw me, but I tried to be inconspicuous. I walked back inside, found Jess and said "It's him" and she knew.. and asked if I wanted to start unpacking the bedroom to say out of sight. Well, anyone who knows me knows that was a great big "HELL NO" I don't run scared!!
I walked back outside to help carry more stuff and as I approached the group he was parking his truck and I walked toward the group of my friends and quietly said, "Yep, it's him" Adam and Ben both almost fell down laughing at me. I asked them to please "Be cool!" I think they all were curious because they don't necessarily look at me as someone who dates.. just as a boss
So, he walks up and Jess greets him as they walk in I was standing there and he looked at me out of the corner of his eye and smiled and winked. I greeted him and we chatted and caught up while he was installing her cable and Internet. All the while, the rest of the group (Adam, Ben, Jess, Lindsey, Andy, Dan, and Zac) were all on the patio just outside of the door drinking and laughing. Every two or three minutes Ben would come inside and offer Cable Guy a drink and would try to convince him to drink with us and hang out or do a shot. After about the third time Cable guy looked at me and said, "Your friends are pretty cool -- they seem like a lot of fun" I just replied with "Yep, they're crazy, but a lot of fun." He told me they had moved to Ft Wayne, but his mom got sick so he moved back (he just said "I moved back" not "We moved back") and took a job as a technician (he had been a supervisor/manager before). He also gave me a pointed look and asked me if I was seeing anyone. Since he emailed me last week and asked if I wanted to hang out i wasn't surprised.
PTB or I would have been red faced!! Anyway he gave me his cell and told me to call him sometime this week and he'd come over and take a look at my Internet.
I know this isn't a big deal for most people, but I try really REALLY hard to keep things compartmentalized and to have an overlap like that kind of threw me. Of course they made fun of me for the rest of the day about the "installation."
Perverts!!
On a good note, we finished getting her moved in about 2 hours then went to Adam's (who lives in the same complex as Jess just across the parking lot) and watched football and ate pizza. It was a good day.
I only almost died once from laughter -- so I call that a definite SUCCESS!!
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