September 2021 – Lisbon, Portugal

I matched with Baby J (‘J-bird’ as I call him directly) on Bumble a few days before he was arriving in Lisbon for work. We made plans to meet up the second day he was in town at a rooftop bar at a certain time (for story purposes, we’ll say 9)

He texted me the day he arrived and we confirmed for the following evening.

He texted me at 8 to say he might be late, he was with colleagues (which I would later find out was another date).

Sure, no problem, I was having drinks anyway.

Texted at 9 asking if we could move to 10… annoying… but, fine.

I arrived my standard 15 mins late and he was still not there.

He texted to let me know he was en route and I made a mental note to leave at 10:30, and go back to my standard of not dating young guys.

He shows up and I see him looking around… I was 10 feet in front of him, how was he missing me?? So I walked up to him and said hi and the first thing out of his mouth was: holy shit! You are tall!

The ONLY thing in my “profile” is: I am tall AF, and you should be too.
Literally, that is it.

So, he gets over his shock and awe, I establish he is an idiot, but I got dressed and put make up on so the least I can do is have a drink.

As we are walking up to the rooftop, I realise he is wasted… I wasn’t far behind, but that is irrelevant.

We got to the bar, and as we are waiting in line there are 90s jams playing and I declare I love a song and Baby J says he doesn’t know it.

I make a comment that is because he is so young and he says: how old are you??

Yup, an idiot. Confirmed.

I asked him if he read anything in my profile and he says: no, I just thought you were cute.

Okay, an idiot with great taste.

He orders shots. My middle age self recoils, but pony’s up and takes it.

We find space in a seating area where we can talk, or more me talk and him slur.

He asks if I want another drink and I said yes. Baby J then hands me his corporate card and tells me to go order whatever I want.

The opportunities that crossed my mind…

But, I decided to be a decent human, got a drink and went back to hang out with this ridiculous human.

We hung out for a little bit until we decided we were both thoroughly drunk and needed to head out.

We were fra-La-La-la’ing through the streets of Lisbon and decided we were STARVING! But everything was closed.

Baby J declared he would absolutely DIE without food so I proposed Uber eats, making it very very verrrrry clear I was going to his hotel JUST to order food and go home.

We went to his hotel, where he promptly sprawled out on the bed and I sat in the chair in the corner and ordered kebab.

After demolishing the food, making fun of his self lacing sneakers and making what I assumed were empty plans to go sightseeing the next day, I walked home.

To my surprise, Baby J texted me the next day to go site seeing.

Sightseeing seeing turned in to a self guided bar crawl, which turned in to dinner, that turned in to a night partying in Bairro Alto that turned in to a weird encounter with a girl who I thought was weirdly shady to me for no reason… until Baby J told me THE NEXT DAY that he had hooked up with her the first night he was in Lisbon and had subsequently ghosted her, just to run in to her with me (yup, an idiot).

We ended up spending 3 whirlwind, instant BFF days together, maxing out his corporate card eating and drinking all of Lisbon.

I became his wingwoman, which failed miserably when the waitress I thought was his future bride asked for my number instead… oops.

The day before he was leaving, he texted me from the COVID test line to tell me he had met someone while they were waiting for their tests. He said we were “all” going to go out later… no, sir, “we” are not, but have fun! Baby J tried insisting we are all go out, even texting me while they were are and asking where I was (this would become a pattern), but I was not up for chaperoning and let them have their fun.

We had a final dinner, and promised to stay in touch and travel together someday. Which, honestly, I have done with so many travel encounters and rarely expect to come to fruition.

I had my doubts this friendship would go beyond that weekend.

But, it did.

We lived in the US at the same time for 9 of those 15 months, but on opposite coasts. We tried making plans to meet up a couple of times, but life got in the way… until Istanbul.

To be continued.