MTB

A week ago, today, I met “Holden Caulfield”.

After work, I went to spend about two hours doing some volunteer work in Greenwich Village.  As I stepped out of the building, there were some steep steps where I needed to deeply bend over from the 2nd or 3rd step to unlock the gate in front of me.

New Yorkers, I think you might know what I am talking about.  Squished spaces, steep steps, little clearance from a doorway to a curb.

I walked out the gate, looked up, and saw a young man walking towards me down the sidewalk with a nice, clear smile on his face, smiling at me.

We made eye-contact, so I smiled back.

He says, “Hi.”

Me:  Hi.  [Smile]

Holden:  I thought you were going to fall off those stairs, so I was preparing myself to catch you.

Me:  Oh, back there?  Oh, you thought I was going to fall?  (And) Oh, you were going to catch me if I fell?

. . .

We are walking and talking. . .

Me:  [I look at Holden]  Wow, were you really going to try to catch me if I fell?

Holden:  Yeah.  [Smile]

Me:  [Completely flattered yet dumbfounded at the chivalry]  Wow, that’s so nice.  You just made my night.  [Smile]

Lots of smiling going on.

Holden:  How’s your night going?

Me:  Good, I was just doing some volunteering, how about you?

Holden:  Good, I just had dinner after work with a friend.  So do you live around here?

Me:  No, I live in ______.

Some more smalltalk, chit-chatting as we are walking.

Holden:  Oh, well maybe if you’re in the area again, we can get together or something.  Here, let me get your number. [Digs in his pocket for his phone]

Me:  [Completely surprised that this young man was asking for my number]  Ok, sure.

Holden:  I’ll call you, that way you can have mine.

Me:  [In awe of his confidence and comfort in talking and “picking me up”] Ok, I’ll cross the street with you then go that way.

We cross the street.

Holden:  It was nice to meet you.

Me:  Thanks for almost catching me!  [As I walk in the other direction]

Next day, Holden texts me and says, “It was nice to meet you.”

We exchange some texts about getting together.  He says he programmed me into his phone as “___ Fallstep.”

I told him he was my Catcher in the Rye. . .

 

We tried to make plans to meet up — he asked me if I were free for a drink that night but I wasn’t — and tried to coordinate a day in the near future, but it didn’t work out — he was potentially away for the weekend.

The weekend has passed and he hasn’t contacted me again.  And I won’t contact him (one of my dating rules not to contact the guy, I let him contact me).

Well, I was flattered that such young guy would hit on me and it was fun while it lasted.  Homeboy looks way too young for me.

Holden Caulfield.

Here’s Adam Scott signing autographs.

This entry was posted on October 9, 2013 at 2:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.