*Karl, 45- Part 1: Five Hour Fling
Pros:
Smart
Charming
Impressive Job
Gentleman
Fun
Tall
Handsome in a weird way
Gave my friend princess treatment
Respectful
Cons:
Ghosted me
I promised you a part 1!
And I’m not one to break a promise ;)
Since part 2 was an introspective tangent (with enlightening takeaways in my humble opinion), I’m gonna give you guys a fun and juicy part 1.
Was it really a 5 hour fling? I don’t know… Maybe 4, maybe 6… but you know I’m a sucker for good alliteration.
So… let me tell you about how I met Karl. It all started when my dear Julie and I (btw I call Julia Julie, so I will use them interchangeably), ho-kay- when my dear Julie and I decided to book this absolutely horrible restaurant in Barcelona for dinner. The place was called Salvaje and it came highly recommended from TikTok (mistake #1: you can’t trust everything you see on the tok. It’s hit or miss. Have a backup reservation). Anyway, it was supposed to be this really trendy Mykonos inspired restaurant, so we were expecting like really cool vibes. But as soon as we got there, I knew immediately, that this… was not it.
Was it the corny outfits the servers had to wear (the guys were wearing cheetah print t-shirts and the women were wearing like a cheetah bra with a feather crown). My God, honestly, honestlyyy, the shows I did in high school had better costumes than that. Or was it the fact that they were playing FOOTLOOSE, yes footloose, the 80’s American classic, on blast when the aesthetic of the place was giving cool Mykonos beach club. The clash was giving me a literal headache. It’s like the cognitive dissonance was causing my brain to short circuit and I was having a borderline panic attack. I’m not even kidding, Julia told me she had never seen me like that. (I also love 80’s music, but hate the song Footloose). It was one bad American song after another. I told Julia that I couldn’t be in there, like my body was screaming at me to leave. She told me to take a breather and we could order our drinks and hopefully the music would change soon. So we placed our order, and 45 minutes and no drink later…. we decided to get up and leave. You can imagine how annoyed we were. We were hungry, we knew most places would already be fully booked on a Saturday, and we didn’t know where else to go. I also still had footloose ringing in my ears. But the second we stepped out of those doors, I felt like I could breathe again.
We started looking up ‘restaurants near me’ on our phones and were ready to jump in a taxi and go to the nearest half decent place. To our surprise… oh shit… Jacqueline is a two minute walk from here! We had seen Jacqueline on every list of best restaurants in Barcelona. It was kind of coined as the new trendy ‘it’ spot. Right up our alley.
We knew there was no shot we’d get a reservation, but we always say “lucky girl syndrome” and try anyway. I mean, it was a two minute walk, if they didn’t give us a seat, we’d just go somewhere else. So there was this darling hostess at the front- Paulina, we love and adore. We basically told her about our horrible experience at Salvaje and told her we were starving, if there was any chance she could even fit us at the bar. As expected, they were fully booked. There was one bar seat open but she literally found another stool for us and squeezed us in the corner. Lucky girl syndrome!
I didn’t know it at the time, but she sat us next to Karl and his two friends.
Within 5 seconds of our butts hitting the stools, the guys next to us were like “Hey! Welcome. Join us! Whatever you want, we have an open tab.”
… Julia and I were like wtf.
Anyway, I assumed the open tab offer was only for drinks, and I told them that we actually hadn’t eaten yet and we had to order our dinner first lol.
“Sure of course, order whatever you want, no problem really”
(????)
Then they introduced themselves. The guy furthest from me had this middle age f*ck boy vibe. He was there to party, had no filter, and was fun but borderline obnoxious. The guy in the middle was superrr quiet. He didn’t say much after introducing himself. And the guy sitting directly next to me… was Karl. He looked straight out of House of Dragon. Like his hair was so pale blond that you could barely see his eyebrows. Kind of like Daemon Targaryen. He also had really sharp features. The only person I’ve ever met whose cheekbones could rival my dad’s. I feel like if you had a crush on Jack Skellington from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, you would find him attractive. I thought he was handsome in kind of a weird way. (But my friend Janil refers to him as the dead CEO, so, to each their own lol.)
Anyway, Karl had told us that they had already ordered a few appetizers and to help ourselves. Of course we didn’t wanna intrude! Julia has to be careful what she eats anyway bc of Celiac so she politely declined. I was starving so I cut myself half a croquette.
K: What is this halfsies?? Nono you must take more
He served me a bunch of croquettes and generous portion of Jamón ibérico.
Me: That’s toooo much.. thank you!
K: This is the only reason us northerners come to Spain. For the Iberian Ham.
He was playful and sweet.
K: Do you know what you want to drink?
Julia and I both wanted Margaritas.
He flagged down the bartender and ordered our drinks, and told him that whatever food we ordered, to put on his tab as well.
Well damn, okay then.
K: So where are you from?
Me: I’m American! My family is from Sri Lanka, but I live in Switzerland. You?
K: Denmark! Hm.. Switzerland, nice place. What do you do there?
Me: I’m in steel trading
K: How’s the steel market now?
I just threw a bunch of buzzwords together. I mean, I didn’t think he really cared. I thought he was just asking to be nice and show interest.
Me: Mm.. market is rebounding now.. yeah, we’re bouncing off the lows… (blabla bullshit)
I mean, if you’re not in the industry, you wouldn’t even know.
K: mmm.. I think prices are going down
Me: No… I think they’re going up.
Me: So what do you do in Denmark?
He kinda leans in and goes…
K: I’m in the automotive industry
OH, F*ck!
Damn… well.. okay, he probably would know because steel and cars kinda go hand in hand.
Turns out he’s the director of 3 large car brands in Denmark. Like the man at the top. Which I later confirmed via Google. Oopsie! My b.
Ehehe (nervous sweat emoji)… I mean, damn, what are the chances??
Well, I wanted out of the hot seat, so I went on the offence and started asking him a bunch of questions. What he thought about the EU green deal and it’s implications on the automotive industry…. His thoughts on green steel… blablabla. I could tell he was kinda caught off guard. (oooo, go me!)
Julia had met a couple from Charlotte that were living their best no-kids globetrotter lives and was bonding with them, and I spent most of the night talking with Karl. Every time Julia wanted another drink, he made sure she put it on his tab. I loved that… I mean, it’s one thing to just be nice to me, but if you’re also nice to my friends…………luvs it. That is probably the best way to win points with me. Be nice to my friends.
Anyway, at one point, his friend comes up to me and Karl and goes, “Listen, I’m the direct type. Karl is the nice one, he’s the talker,” then looks me dead in the eyes and goes, “I think you’re gorgeous, I would love to f*ck you.”
………………………………… (excuuuuuuuuuuseeee meee. ew no.)
Karl is like “Dude, you can’t just go around saying things like that, what’s wrong with you?” Then apologized to me on behalf of his friend. I just chuckled and said, “thanks, but no thanks.” His friend literally just shrugged and said “okay!”
K: Sorry… he… lacks a filter
So whatever, we keep talking and he was just soooo nice and cute. Like he just had this really balanced, centered energy. Kind, fun, generous, handsome, smart, amazing job. It was like my dress was unzipping itself….
OH WAIT. IT LITERALLY DID.
The f*cking zipper of my dress broke and the entire thing unzipped all the way down my back.
Omgomgomgomgomg.
JULIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Helpppp!!!! Bathroommm! Noww!!!
How did that happen?? I mean, I guess it was a little tight, but it was an expensive dress… I thought the zipper would hold… (cheap sh*t.)
I was literally holding my dress together at the top and Julia was holding it in the middle as we scurried to the bathroom. It was kinda funny. Well, not in the moment, but looking back it was funny. We spent 10 minutes just trying to get the zipper to latch on again.
No luck.
Then we asked the bathroom attendant if they had any safety pins to pin it closed.
They didn’t.
But she told us to wait a second and came back with a sewing kit. I thought, ‘oh God bless her’, she’s gonna help sew the dress. But she just pointed to Julia and said “amica”.
Julia can’t sew btw.
She was also a many free margaritas deep.
I’m like, “Julia, you can do this.”
Well… we dropped the needle and were hunched over the floor with our phone light on.
Finally, the woman came over and helped us. It wasn’t pretty… but it worked.
30ish minutes later, we went back down to the bar. But.. Karl and his friends weren’t there.
Wtf… did we get ditched?
I mean, okay we were gone for kind of a while but… idk, I didn’t think they would dip on us like that.
But after a few seconds I saw Karl and his friends emerge from the crowd. They had gone to check out the Champagne bar. Jacqueline has multiple rooms and apparently they are all gorgeous… I kind of regret not exploring the place more. Anyway, as soon as he saw me he smiled and walked over to me and kissed my cheek.
K: Hi… You disappeared for a while
Me: Yeahhh, sorry… (laughing) crisis averted… (showing him the back of my botched dress)… kinda
Me: I almost thought you left
K: What!? I would never leave without saying bye to you
Okay I would say this was kind of the turning point of the night. Up until then, even if we were talking a lott, it was still kinda in the friend zone. And now… it was kind of leaving the friend zone.
We were all standing around the bar now instead of sitting. And as we were ordering our next drinks… idk, you know all those little touches when you’re flirting with someone? Like I was ordering another drink and he very gently had his hand on my lower back. And as we talked to our friends, we both had one hand on the bar and we kinda started like playing with each others fingers………….… Idk, am I explaining this well?? If you know, you know.
It just got very flirty but in a cute and wholesome way.
K: Ladies, would you want to go to the rooftop at the W? It’s really nice. We’re staying there if you would like to join us? Don’t feel pressure. Would be nice if you came… maybe we go dance 1 ‘owa’… and of course, you can leave when you want.
(I didn’t really specify that he had an accent before but… he’s from Denmark, so, of course he did).
Me and Julia: ONE OWAA- TWO OWAA….
PLEASEEE tell me you guys know that audio. I reference it a lot in my regular life which means I might reference it again in these blogs so… consider it pop culture homework. It’s also hilarious. And if you’re reading my blog I assume you have a small appreciation for my sense of humour.
Okay, anyway! Julia and I had a good chuckle about that. Then we kinda just looked at each other and through best friend telepathy, we decided we were gonna go.
I mean, its the W Barcelona. Why wouldn’t you go? Looks like the night has just begun!
So the guys go out and flag down a taxi. Karl was holding my hand but it was all very PG, we hadn’t kissed or anything. Oh, their quiet friend disappeared, so it was the crazy friend in the front, and me, Karl, and Julie in the back.
Earlier that day, after sightseeing, I tolddd my girl Julie that if I was gonna wear a dress to go out, I really should get a wax (ughhhh my problemsss). But she was like, “it’s really not that bad”- and honestly, it wasn’t. Like in dim enough lighting you couldn’t really see it. But like, you could definitely feel it. Julie assured me that no one was gonna be touching my legs tonight, and I was overthinking it.
So when Karl was rubbing my legs up and down in the taxi, I was just like……………….. oh sh*t.
Anyway, we get to the W and it’s a vibeee. Karl and I go straight to the dance floor and we were having sooo much fun. He was a fun dancer. And he was so sweet.
K: I’m so happy I met you
(ahhhhh!!!!… okay play it cool)
I think I just smiled and kept dancing. Then he spotted Julia at the bar about to pay for her own drink, and took my hand and walked over to her and was like, “Julia, no I got it.” I mean he didn’t let her pay for one thing the entire night. He asked if I wanted anything but I tapped out. Water for me for the rest of the night. I thanked him for keeping an eye out for Julia. My friends are my life, so it meant a lot to me that he was giving her princess treatment too. As the Spice Girls so eloquently put it, “If you wanna be my lover, ya gotta get with my friends.”
K: Well, I am borrowing her friend… it’s the least I could do.
I was sitting on a stool while we waited for Julia to get her drink. And he kept rubbing my damn legs….
Like Sir, are you interested in purchasing a cactus plant!? Because what in the f*ck!!
Anyway, Julia got her drink and we went back to the dance floor. He was spinning me around and hugging me and singing to me and just being so freaking cuuutee.
K: You are so beautiful… wow
Me: Eheh… ehhh.. thanks, but I’m so embarrassed… I didn’t really expect anyone to be touching my legs tonight …lol
And then…
He put both hands on my face and goes…
“That’s not the point, you’re the point”
AND KISSES ME
Ahhhhhh!!!! …….. That was hot.
Love a good dance floor make out.
So we danced and kissed on repeat, checked in with Julie girl who was making friends at the bar, and just had an amazing time.
After a while, he asked if I wanted to accompany him to his room to get his charger. “Get his charger”…. yeah right, I’m not stupid. But sometimes I’ll go against my better judgement just… because. Idk, I probably justified it in my head that we could have some privacy to make out. I think I really believe my own delusions.
I found Julia and asked her if she would be okay if I left with Karl for a bit. She had already made a bunch of friends and I knew she could hold her own. I promised her I would be back soon and I very much intended on keeping that promise. (And I did.)
But first….
You know how in the movies, they open the door making out and they just continue to passionately make out on the walls?
Yeah.. that’s not real life.
I mean… usually I would just walk in the door like a normal person and then idk, find a bed or couch to make out on.
But…. in this case… it was like the movies.
ACTION!
(Continue your visual)
Steamy, steamy make out against the door while he took out the key… steamy make out on the walls, he was kissing down my neck, grabbing my waist.. I mean the whole shebang. Your standard romcom prehook up scene.
Listen there’s a few details that I’ll keep to myself, but it wasn’t so PG anymore… Even made me gasp.
The guy took a one way flight to…. the land…… (Hint: the place where they say things like ‘shrimp on the barbie’)
There was even a clue within that clue… (kinda proud of that one).
And as nice as it was…
I just wasn’t in the mood to do more.
So I didn’t. I did nothing.
And the COOLEST part about Karl, is that he never, everrrr, ever asked, moved my hand, moved my head (God, that’s the worst when guys do that), or made me feel like he was expecting something back. He was so extremely respectful, which of course is the minimum… that’s how it should be.
Me: Listen, Julia’s up there. I told her I’d be back soon so… I should go…
Of course he looked a bit disappointed.
K: I hate to see you go, but I understand….
He gave me a huge kiss told me I was amazing bla bla.
The truth is, if I really wanted to stay, I could have just talked to Julia and waited with her until she got an Uber and gone back but… I just didn’t want to. I went out with my friend, I wanted to go home with my friend. I wanted to eat McDonalds in our King size hotel bed, in our robes, and talk about the night and laugh about my dress ripping and ONE OWA, TWO OWA.
And that’s exactly what we did!
It was a really fun night… but I wasn’t really expecting to hear from Karl again. Especially because he was flying back to Denmark in the morning, so it’s not like we were gonna see each other again.
So I was kinda surprised when he texted me the next day.
K: Morning, my head is still filled with you
And he texted me again the next day… and the next day… aand the next day….
And every day for the next three weeks….
And well… you know how the story ends.
Dating 101 Key Take Aways:
Guys (and girls) will come and go, but your friends are forever.
