Love Quest
LOVE QUEST
With my specialisation underway and my home hunt now in progress, my quest for permanence somehow seemed to be coming along nicely.
It was also around this time that I started feeling like something was missing. Like I wanted more out of life. I was doing everything that made me happy, yet somehow it felt like I could be even happier doing those things with someone. It was time. It was finally time. I felt ready to start dating again.
You see, before my gap year, I’d had tons of mini-relationships, all of them lasting a few months at most. Pedro had been my longest-term boyfriend, and even then, we’d only lasted a little over six months. After my gap year, I opened myself up to love and all its possibilities – yet it had been one failure after another. From friend-zoned hotties to others with incompatible futures, it had been a conveyor belt of “thank you, next” – short flings with beautiful memories that would forever remain in their shiny, happy bubbles.
After months of being single, I was finally ready to start something new. And once again, Tinder came to the rescue.
Red Flags & Green Eyes
Enter Ash – a 28-year-old stud from the UK. He’s this gorgeous ginger with the greenest of eyes and a British accent that could make you melt. He had also broken up with his ex less than a month earlier and was still living with him.
Yep, that’s right. Somehow, whenever I saw a red flag, I ran towards it. Somehow, some way, I kinda ignored all of that on account of how well we got along. Our first date was just a romantic dinner, but it was the kind where neither of us could shut up as we talked about anything and everything. He told me he’d previously worked as a carer back in the UK and was now working as a sales rep and event organiser. It might not have been the most lucrative job in the world, true, but he had plans to work his way up.
If our first date was perfect, our second was simply glorious. We went to the arcade (fun!) and spent a couple of hours jumping from one game to the next. First it was air hockey, then basketball, then billiards, then darts and finally bowling. We had a blast. By the end, we’d burned through a few hundred euros and were somehow still ready for more. We headed to the beach and bought ourselves a few beers. There, we spotted a group of Polish tourists playing this weird drinking game called Flanki – the Polish verison of Flunkyball.
They went on to explain the rules. Two teams stand opposite each other, with each player holding a drink and an empty can or bottle placed as a target between them. One team throws something – usually a ball – at the target. If they knock it over, they start drinking while the opposing team scrambles to retrieve the ball, put the target upright again and return to position. Once they’re ready, the drinking stops and the teams swap roles. The first team to finish their drinks wins.
On paper, it sounded reasonably organised. In practice, it quickly devolved into shouting, running around the beach and competitive chaos. And that, Ash and I could certainly attest to. It was ridiculously fun. We joined them for a game and had an absolute blast. All out-Flanki‘d, we then we sat down and spent a couple of hours chatting and drinking. Also doing the Lush Life dance – no idea how or why. We had such a good time!
Eventually, with the girls bidding us farewell, we headed back towards the car, planning to go home. It was so late at night (or so early in the morning) that I suggested we head to another beach and watch the sunrise instead. Let’s just say we didn’t see much of the sunrise.
On Paper
Right around the same time I started dating Ash, this random guy called Paul followed me on Instagram.
Now Paul, on paper, was the complete and total opposite of Ash. First off, he was Maltese – not someone I’d usually go for. Second, he was a pharmacist with a solid career. And third? He was into travelling almost as much as I was. On paper, he could have been ‘the one’.
While I usually didn’t like dating different people at the same time, I figured I owed it to myself to see what the market had to offer. Things with Ash weren’t serious yet, so I decided to give this guy a go. We met up at a restaurant and had dinner together. We had a good time – the conversation was great, he was cool and funny, and the food was great too. Only, I didn’t quite feel it. Right from the very start, it felt like we were just “bros”. He did kiss me, but even that felt somewhat forced and weird – kind of like kissing your best friend of ten years, you know? Despite how much I wanted it to work, I realised it probably wouldn’t.
But, as I figured at the time, I didn’t have to close that chapter just yet. For the first time in months, I had a trip coming up. I could figure all of this out once I got back.