e, chicago

"I was 22 and in my last semester of college in Milwaukee when I met this guy at a bar. I believe his name was Steve. He seemed like a nice guy, kind of shy, in his late 20s. We exchanged phone numbers and after a week or so of talking on the phone we decided to go out on a date. The night we planned to go out I had an exam until about 8pm, so he offered to plan the entire evening.

I drove to his house at around 9pm. He met me outside and jumped in my car and asked me to first drive to the bar that he managed. It was a Monday or Tuesday night and the bar was closed, but he had keys and went in. He came out with a bottle of wine and a bag of pretzels. We then went back to his place. When we got to his place he told me he had kicked his roommates out for the night and that I should sit on the couch and close my eyes. After he left the room he came back and told me I could open my eyes. He handed me a rose and told me to follow the rose petals.

I proceeded to follow the rose petals up three flights of stairs to his bedroom. (The whole time I kept telling myself that I did not want to see what was at the end and to run out, not sure why I didn't.) I opened his bedroom door and it was lit up with candles and there was a blanket on the floor. The blanket was covered in rose petals, along with wine and the bag of pretzels.

He then had me sit so he could read me the poem he wrote for me. Before he read the poem he put on a Sarah McClachlan CD. He warned me that her music often made him cry, so if he started to tear up while he read the poem I shouldn't be alarmed. He had written me a poem about how we met at the bar. (touching.) I tried to tell myself that I wasn't giving him a chance and he was just trying to be nice. So I tried talking to him and asking him questions about himself.

He never asked me anything about myself - He said he "knew the curves of my face and that was all he needed to know." During our conversation I made the mistake of asking about old girlfriends and he started yelling about some girl that he took to a Sting concert and now he is "no longer allowed to talk to." (I didn't ask for qualification of that statement.) He also felt it was necessary to tell me that in a couple months he was going to be going to jail for awhile for drunk driving but "we would get through it."

When I left he told me "I was the one," but clearly not happy I wasn't spending the night. The next day I parked my car down the block and made my girlfriend run up and leave a note on his door telling him to never call me again. (Very mature I know) I actually never heard from him again! "