Ask and You Shall Receive! – Entry 47

Saturday

My father rang and woke me at 8 a.m.

-          I’ll pick you up at 10! He barked.

-          Hello, who is it? I asked.

I had been sleeping deeply after a long night at the Oak Room with a good-looking bloke whom I left standing in the middle of a sentence at half past nausea. And now I was hung-over.

- Frederik from Samsoe is coming over, and I think you should wear a skirt.

- Father!

- Were you sleeping? Aren’t you going to get out of bed and make something of the day? You need a cold shower and a run.

- I have to go … I stammered. I managed to get to the toilet in the nick of time.

I must have found my way back to bed and fallen asleep because the next thing I knew my father was pounding on my duvet and howling – Get up! We’re leaving in 12 minutes!

Once again I regretted having given him an emergency key.

- Dad, I can’t…

- Nonsense. Go take a cold shower. Now!

I dragged myself under the shower and it did make me feel better, even if I was loathing to admit it. But when I looked in the mirror I thought: Horror!

Shortly thereafter my poor brain recalled that the man I was meeting was not known for his good looks – so it was almost a gesture of solidarity!

The only problem would be if he thought I always looked like this… oh well, I would most probably never see the man again. It didn’t sound like anything I was interested in, especially now that I had met Ruben. On the other hand Ruben and I just keep on talking, and he hasn’t even tried anything else. Is he expecting me to take the initiative? How does that work in Severin’s world?

Then my father said that Frederik reminded him of Claus, which snapped me back into reality. Claus and I had dated for a very short time when I was young. I had just finished school but I was still living at home – and when Claus and I saw each other he usually spent more time in the living room with my father than with me in my room. One day while they sat talking I left my room and went outside. I took a long walk in the forest and when I came back they were still sitting in the living room, chatting away. Then I broke up with him, but my father didn’t. He and Claus still meet regularly and my father never fails to mention that they’ve seen each other, complete with an outburst about what a shame it is that we didn’t stay together – Claus was a great man!

We arrived at my father’s place at three minutes to eleven – or his ‘estate’, as he calls it, since there is a house and a shed. What others refer to as a garden is ‘land’ for my father. And when we arrived there was a man standing on his land and the lights were on inside his house. I thought of my father’s girlfriend and suddenly the heavy load  of the entire arrangement came down on me like a hammer.

Frederik was charming, handsome and self-confident. He was well-trained and a little taller than me. His strawberry-blonde hair was short and his green eyes were intense. I was attracted to his essence and his body, and when he smiled at me my hangover evaporated like dew in the sunshine. My father and I almost raced out of the car to greet him. My father won, gave him his hand and welcomed Frederik to his estate. Ouch, there was my hangover again. Why must my father always appear more important than he is? On the other hand, it was a good thing the man had already met my father – that way he wouldn’t be the reason everything went downhill later. If it even turned into anything at all. After all, I had my conversational date, Ruben, and I wanted to have sex with him.

Especially now that I’d dropped Per – I called him yesterday and told him that I’ve met someone else. He found that an excellent reason to continue our relationship – after all, it puts us in the same situation, given the fact that he has a wife at home. But the problem is that he will always have a physical and emotional safety net in his wife, and he can’t afford to provide me with that safety. And Ruben has definitely piqued my curiosity, so now is the right time to call it quits wit hPer. But back to Frederik, who was reaching out his hand and introducing himself.

We exchanged greetings and his smile struck my heart like an arrow. The smile formed by his lovely lips spread across his face and into his warm eyes, which looked directly into mine. Wow!

Then my father started getting impatient and interrupted – Come inside and I’ll show you around.

Show him around! Like it was some kind of manor or something… but Frederik got the complete tour, asked funny questions and challenged my father’s dominant nature. It was by leagues more entertaining than I had expected.

In between he asked about what I did and where I lived. I explained that I live in a rented terraced house and told him about my job as the director of an entrepreneurial agency. He’s very well-informed on the topic and asked me some great, in-depth questions.

And then Katrine came. She’s a sweet, round woman in the prime of her life, easygoing and full of smiles. On top of that, she’s crazy about my father. She compliments and laughs and pats in all of the right places, and he shines like the sun. Once again I was struck by how talented some women are at getting others to thrive. She’s very sociable and our pleasant morning coffee quickly developed into lunch –luckily for me it was scrambled eggs, bacon and beer – and while we ate I started thinking about bringing Frederik into the running for my three profiles. But as soon as Katrine and my father went into the kitchen to get the cheese, Frederik took a step ahead of me and asked:

- How’s it going with your three men?

- Uhm, alright. How do you know about that?

- A friend of mine thought I should respond to your personal ad. So when your father got in touch with me I figured: well, now a couple of people think we two might have something in common.

- Interesting, I said.

- I much prefer meeting you like this – online dating is a little weird. It’s like a supermarket for romance, sex, and intimacy. I keep finding myself in the wrong aisle. Why am I staring at a shelf full of cornflakes when what I want is wine and a steak? Maybe I’m just too much of a romantic.

We laughed and I asked – Which of the three roles would you try out for?

-          I’m definitely all for good sex. And good food, he replied. He smiled and the rest of his face followed suit in that incredibly charming way.

Just then Katrine and my father came back, so I was spared a reply. If I hadn’t met Ruben I would have said yes without blinking an eye. And Ruben is technically still a conversational companion. Besides, he hasn’t asked me to promise him anything, and he knows what I’m doing. If only I knew what I am doing!

At three in the afternoon Frederik was getting ready to leave and I accepted his offer to drive me home. When he dropped me off he asked for my phone number, which I gave him.

Now it’s time for a nap, then a bath and then it’s time to get ready for dinner at Noma with Ruben!