Charming, but single

So, I’m sitting around Saturday doing a whole lot of nothing when the phone rings. I figured it was one of my friends calling to give me an update on our plans for the evening.

Nope. It was T.

First, I stared at the caller ID in disbelief. After not calling me for weeks and then sending flirty e-mails, he FINALLY decided to call me. I didn’t know whether to be happy or annoyed.

Then I got excited and giggled and rejoiced in the sound of my own ringtone.

Then I remembered that I couldn’t just look at the phone, rather I needed to actually answer it to talk to him. I swear, I had smoother dealings with my sixth grade boyfriend than with this boy. I’d say I am as immature as a 12 year old, but I used to have game back then, apparently.

So, I answered the phone (right before it clicked over to voicemail), trying not to sound overly excited, but still wanting to sound happy.

He didn’t even really say who it was — he just jumped into, “How are you doing?” and asked if I’d finished Anna Karenina. I told him I was on page 400, mentioned my new job and how it kept me busy. He mentioned that he, too, was in a new job, which totally thrills me because he had been working afternoons and nights, so it made hanging out ridiculous. He started the whole conversation off so casually, as if we talked all of the time and he hadn’t neglected to call for weeks.

We talked for about a half hour. It was cool, but I have to admit that I’m not a HUGE fan of the phone. I don’t mind talking a little bit, but I hate having a conversation for much more than 10 minutes with someone who lives in town. I’d rather just have coffee or drinks or dinner with the person.

This was the first time he seemed shy to me. It wasn’t that the conversation wasn’t good, just that he was a bit more timid than I’m accustomed to getting from him. (My friends said that I’m crazy and that he’s always been a shy person and that he only seems to not be shy around me, which was a nice compliment but probably not entirely true.)

So, he paused and I asked what he was doing that evening. (Because we’d been on the phone for almost half an hour and I’d yet to discern his purpose for calling, other than to chat. I have nothing against chatting, but most men I’ve encountered don’t call just to chat.) He said he was hanging out for a little bit before going home for a friend’s engagement party. (His family lives two or so hours away from my town.)

So, we couldn’t get together last night. I was disappointed, but I tried not to let it show to much in my voice. He kind of stumbled over his closing, and I was worried that he maybe thought I was annoyed, so I said, “I enjoyed talking to you. Call me so we can hang out soon.” He replied that he would like that and that was that.

The boy literally called just to chat. After not speaking to me for six weeks and flirting through e-mail, he called to talk to me and didn’t ask me out. I left the door wide open and he never did. We even talked about Wednesday night martinis, and he said he didn’t like to go out for drinks late during the week. I said, “It just takes a little self control, that’s all.” He shot back, “In case you haven’t been able to tell, self-control is not one of my strong points.” And the he laughed this flirty laugh that punctuated his sentiment well. Regardless of what he may have meant, I heard, “I can’t control myself around you because you are HOT and CHARMING and WONDERFUL and SEXY.”

But then he didn’t ask me out, which kind of lessened the whole “HOT and CHARMING and WONDERFUL and SEXY” sentiment.

It is a good thing that he called and nice to know what he was doing so that I didn’t wonder if he was going to call me Saturday night. But the whole thing left me confused. Is he really so shy that he can’t ask me out? How can he be so brazen as to practically drag me out of a New Year’s party one night and then not even ask me out after a 30-minute conversation?

I’m am perplexed, yet slightly excited and totally sexy-feeling.

Sort of.