A New Man named Newman

After two years of waiting and wondering whether or not he even remotely had any feelings for me, I was surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth.

“It’s a date then.”

My heart skipped a beat and my cheeks almost burst from the size of the smile that came over my face. Jon Newman had asked me out! I couldn’t believe it.

Ok, so he’s definitely not the type of guy I normally go for. My type is grumpy, loner, jerks who treat me like crap and play unnecessary head games with me. I mean, just to give you an example, my last boyfriend said he had found a ring and was going to propose, only to have him tell me five days later that he never loved me and it was all a joke. Oh... and he had sex with his fat half sister. Yeah. Those are the types of guys I seemed to attract.

But I digress. Jon, on the other hand, is the guy who everyone loves. He would walk into the bar and everyone there would turn, throw up their hands and shout out his name in happiness. I mean...way to make an entrance! He is kind, smart, funny, considerate, and totally sexy.

I still remember the first time I met Jon. He walked into the bar, The Eagles Club, with my now best friend Kelly. Everyone in the bar knew him and called his name out in cheer! “NEWMAN!!!” He is a 6’2” tall, blonde, blue eyed, bearded, nice, goof ball of a guy. And I was totally into it.

Over the next few months I saw him occasionally at the Eagles Club, and he would always greet me with a kiss on the cheek, a hug, and a “Hey Sweetie.” But it never went much further than that. And after one night of my friend getting drunk and telling him that someone like me would never date someone like him, well I thought, “Oh great. Guess that’s done now.” But everyone could tell that I liked him. But I always wondered why he never asked me out. I mean, I’m smart, cute, attractive, driven, amazing blah blah blah. But you can’t make someone like you if they don’t. So I just assumed at that point that we would just be friends.

But last Thursday everything changed. It was our first date. But wait. I have to tell you about how he asked me out. It was the sweetest thing ever.

Kelly and I were at 51 having dinner and talking about Newman. She told me to text him and see what he was up to. I had just gotten finished showing her every text that I had sent over the past year. They went something like this. “Hey Newman, you at the club?” His response was always, “Just left, or heading home now, you just missed me.” I told Kelly he is just not into me. She insisted I message him. “You around?” “Yup, I’m at the club, come on by.” So Kelly and I head over to meet up with him. He came over and sat next to me at the table with Kelly sitting across from us. After a little bit of laughter and a little bit of flirty touching I got up to get another beer, never thinking anything would come of this exchange. But when my back turned to the table I felt him get up quickly and with purpose and come stand very close to me at the bar.

“So I’m gonna have a steak dinner with someone this week,” he said.

(Oblivious to this, I replied.) “Oh that sounds nice.”

He then proceeded to cock his head sideways and look down at me and say, “So what are you doing this week?”

Crap, there is that smile, try to be cool Hillary. Just be cool.

“I’m not doing anything this week.” (my eyes looked up at him with a glint of excitement)

“Wednesday, then.”

I smiled, then oh no! “Crap, I can’t do Wednesday.”

He looked confused since I had said I didn’t have anything going on.

“I am going to the Terror Behind the Walls with my work on Wednesday.”

“Ok, so what other day works for you.”

“Any day but Wednesday.”

“Right, ok so Friday then.”

I smiled again, then oh no!! “Crap, I can’t do Friday either!” He seemed a little defeated at that point. “It’s Kelly’s birthday dummy, and you are already going to that party and so am I.”

We both laughed and I looked at him and said “Thursday?”

“Done. I’m serious about this ok.”

“Ok”

“It’s a date then.”

As I turned around I caught Kelly sitting at the table and knew that she must have told him that I wanted to go out. But I didn’t care. She did a good wing woman’s job there. We sat back down and drank our beers as the laughter and conversation filled the space.

By the time it was time to go, Kelly could tell there was something going on. Jon turned to me as we were standing up and said, “Remember, Thursday! I’ll make a reservation.”

Kelly’s face lit up as we walked out of the bar and down the street.

“Sooooooo, Did Newman just ask you out?”

“YASS!”

“I knew it!!” She yelled as she jumped up and down.

“What the heck did you say to him Kel?”

“Nothing!! I just nodded my head toward you when you got up for a beer and he took off after you!”

“That’s a mighty powerful head nod then.”

“Heck Yeah, Murray’s are known for it!”

Laughter filled the street as we headed into town for some late night munchies. Every detail had to be gone over and analyzed before we could each go home. And only burgers would all that to happen.

“It’s a date then.” I kept hearing those words over and over again as the day grew closer.

He’s going to cancel, He’s going to cancel. I just know. He’s going to cancel. All day long that was all I could think about. I had a whole week to prepare for this date. This may very well be my last first date I ever go on! (Ok. Don’t get ahead of yourself, Hillary). But I had gotten my nails done, my eyebrows done, my toes done. I had gotten a Brazilian wax, and headed to the mall to find the perfect outfit. I had to look amazing! I only get this one chance for a first date with him, and I really wanted it to be perfect. He took me to a very romantic restaurant called Catherine’s steak, in Kennett Square. When I pulled up to the restaurant to meet him I thought Wow! Ok. This is a real date! No let’s meet at Dunkin Donuts at 8:30pm and then go back to my place type of date. (Oh yeah, that happened. Not the going back to his place, plllleeeaaasseee! Give me a break.) The inside had maroon walls with the lights down low. White linen table cloths and a fireplace. It was perfect. Set inside an old Victorian house, the mood and everything was just right. Only three other couples were there, so it was very intimate, and I was starving! The waiter pulled out the seat for me and I didn’t realize so I went to the other side of the table and pulled out my own chair. Jon chuckled and said, “Why thank you sir.” You could cut the nervous energy with a knife. But it was a good kind of nervous. He wore a red button-down dress shirt and black pants. And I wore a white Calvin Klein silk tank top that showed just the right amount of cleavage with a black sweater and black pants. The minute we sat down he told me how beautiful I looked and he loved my outfit. Little did he know it only cost me $15. I’m super great at finding good deals! He also brought a bottle of Merlot for the dinner since the restaurant was byob. As we sat there smiling at each other the conversation just took off. We covered every topic imaginable. We realized that this was the first time in the two years we have known each other that we really had a full conversation, and it wasn’t stopping anytime soon. As the other couples finished their dinner and started to clear out, we were left as the only two in this romantic restaurant. We finally realized that we were the only ones left and asked the waiter if they were closing. He said, “Take your time. You look like you are having a great date. You still have to get dessert anyway.” We both smiled.

After we were fat and happy with dessert it was time to leave. I was nervous because I didn’t want the date to end, but I also didn’t want him to say let’s go back to my place which would equal a one night stand. As we got up he was behind me and in the middle of the restaurant he grabbed my hand and said which way should we go out? This was or this way? When I turned around he had come down to my level to give me a kiss. It totally took me by surprise. And it was really nice. His arm went around my back and he pulled me in. Needless to say this goof ball of a man was really smooth in the dating scene. At least to me. We walked outside and he said he would drive me to my car. As we walked toward his Jeep he went ahead and opened the car door for me. Such a gentlemen! Then he climbed in on his side and pulled me over to him for another kiss. “Dessert twice in one night? How lucky am I?” He said. It was really cute. Then he said, “would you like to go out and grab another drink? You can park at my place and we can walk into town.” “Sounds good to me.”

Walking into town was interesting because literally everyone knows him. Walking side by side he reached down and grabbed ahold of my hand. Newman is holding my hand! Keep it together Hillary. As we entered the bar, Jitters, of course 4 different people there yelled “Newman!!” and came up and gave him a hug. He introduced me and said we were hanging out. After getting our drinks he pulled me to a quiet corner of the bar and held my hand, trying to reignite the conversation. When we noticed how late it was he looked at me and said “am I gonna see you tomorrow? I really want to see you tomorrow.” I looked in his eyes and said absolutely! He smiled, and gave me a kiss. The entire drive home was a blur b/c I was smiling, knowing that this was the start of something completely special! I raced home as fast as I could! I had so much to tell Kelly!