“Hey Terry, thanks for the interview and the coffee treat. Hope you’re safely back at your hotel. That was really nice! So interesting to have such an intellectual conversation with someone whom I met on a dating app!”
“Haha, hope you’re home safely too. Thanks to you B for agreeing to help me with the interview. Yes, the conversation was really nice. Sorry that it wasn’t a date though, even though it’s someone you met on a dating app.”
“Well, you can always make it a date if you want :P”
This came as a surprise – it was quite a come-on. I responded cautiously, though, as this was someone I just met after all.
“Haha, really?”
“:P what do you think?”
“Well if you say so…
”
“So when are you going back to Singapore?”
“Two days from now! Still have meetings to attend over the next two days.”
“Will you be free tomorrow evening? I can buy you dinner like a good host would.”
I looked at my calendar, and realized that I already had another meeting. By the time I was done, it would be quite late. Plus, I probably would be quite tired too. So I decided to take a rain check.
“Sorry, but I have a meeting! I’ll probably only be done about 9 plus”.
“I’m okay with that, actually. Where’s your meeting? I can be nearby, and we can have a drink, or I can accompany you for dinner if you haven’t eaten by then.”
“Oh, I’ll be at Causeway Bay – at XXX co-working space.”
“That’s okay, it’s not too far for me. I live just one station away. Is your hotel nearby too?”
“Yes, it’s two streets away.”
“Great! Let’s meet then. There’s a nice café that serves food till late, we could go there!”
“Ah I’m sorry it’ll be so late. But great! See you tomorrow. Have a good rest!”
“Good night!”
So at this point of arranging this, I was already quite tired from the day and was on the verge of dozing off. I just sleepily inserted it into my calendar, then fell asleep with my phone next to me on the bed. I didn’t think much about it too, except for how I was a little concerned that I would not have time to do my work in the evening. That, of course became something that wasn’t that important.
The next evening, after my meeting, I headed down to the café which she had sent the address to me beforehand. When I got there, it was rather crowded – as with many other places in Hong Kong. It was clearly a place for people our age group, but interestingly also served quite traditional Hong Kong fare. Because of the crowd, we were only left with sharing a table with a couple, but that also meant she and I had to sit side by side. I apologized for being late, which she very understandingly waved off and said that it wasn’t necessary. We then quickly ordered food, a coffee and had our meal. A big problem was the crowd and the amount of chatter, which made our conversations quite tough. At one point, we both laughed at how difficult it was to hear each other. We signaled to each other to quickly finish our food, and head out. She agreed to that, and we both finished our food quickly.
When we got outside, I asked if she knew of anywhere which we could go to to continue the conversation. There wasn’t any, however, and we stood there for a while, thinking. At this point, I suddenly remembered that my hotel had a sitting lounge which was open till late. I didn’t want to suggest this at first lest it seemed like I was inviting her to my room, but just tried, hoping she wouldn’t take things the wrong way. Surprisingly, she didn’t.