ONE: The Wordsmith, Melbourne Hearts, & My Soul.

“Come on, Hearts! Give me something to cheer about!”

I first got in touch with Wordsmith after he tweeted me, then gave me his number and we started yacking on the phone for about 45 minutes before arranging to meet up for a nice cup of hot chocolate. At first when I read his message to me on Twitter before calling him, I thought to myself, “YES! This guy is definitely speaking my language!” because although other people’s source of “liquid life” is coffee, mine is definitely hot chocolate. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate!?

After much tweeting, the hot chocolate date soon evolved and became a soccer game date, not that I was complaining. It just so happens that the night we were meant to meet, there was a match between Melbourne Hearts & Everton. It didn’t take much convincing. Wordsmith was told of the date idea, and the next thing I knew we had tickets and we were going! On the phone and on Twitter countless times, I had joked to Wordsmith that when we’d meet he’d better not ‘eat my soul‘. He promised me that he wouldn’t, but promises don’t really mean anything when you don’t really know the person that they’re coming from… right?

I had no idea that I was meant to attend a work meeting that same evening as my scheduled date. On the day when I was happily minding my own business, my assistant manager dropped the bomb saying that we had a work meeting that evening and I freaked. I knew I would get in trouble one way or a another, but decided that since the tickets had already been bought for the soccer game, that I might as well try to sneak away like a ninja to the date instead. Being very ‘un-ninja-like-ish‘, I went over to my manager and told him that I had a soccer date to attend to, of course he was disappointed in me, but I’ll probably feel the aftermath later.

After we had closed shop, I informed one of my work colleagues that I was not attending the meeting and rushed away over to the train station. I could see that my train only had 2 minutes left to arrive. “Shit!” I thought, but still tried to catch the train anyway. I dashed pass my bewildered friend who worked at the train gates. From a glimpse I could see he was both surprised and upset that I didn’t say hi whilst I made my way down to the train platform.

Thankfully I had caught my train, and an express train as well! After slightly changing my attire on the train {No, I didn’t strip on the train!} I was in the city in no time, and met Wordsmith not long after I had jumped off my train. “It’s so nice to finally meet you!” he had exclaimed to me, and for a second I had wondered to myself, “Why? What was he expecting? He seems awfully relieved…” I smiled, spoke some words back, and walked over the bridge with Wordsmith on our way to the stadium where the soccer match was being held. I guess we were too busy yacking away to even notice the merchandise stand that was on our path before the stadium; a place which we hunted for later when I realised that it was the only place that sold Melbourne Heart supporter scarves. Alas!

When we entered the stadium, I could tell it was clear that Wordsmith had never been to a soccer match before, or seen any sport live for that matter. He didn’t have to tell me he a single thing, I could tell by the way his eyes wandered around the stadium followed by his nervous smile. I liked how Wordsmith was willing all the same to go to a soccer match even though he didn’t know much about the sport. Whenever I’d ask him, “Are you following this?” he’d insist that he knew a bit from playing soccer on the computer games. I recall the people sitting next to Wordsmith glancing over at me strangely as if asking me telepathically, “What the hell is this guy doing here if he doesn’t follow the game?” I replied back silently with my stare thinking, “ME. He is here because of ME. Now stop staring!”

Wordsmith was really quite lovely on our date. He wasn’t intimidating, was kind, quirky, and all smiles. Wordsmith turned out to be a clever young man who buried himself in the ‘publishing scene‘ for most of his days. I admired that. He also informed me that he had been working on a fiction novel. It sparked a common interest in me. I unearthed one of my story plots that I had written 80,000 words for, telling him of my idea and displaying my passion for writing as well. Truthfully, I had wanted in the past to have a fiction novel published one day, but it wasn’t really high on my list of dreams and priorities for me to do. Nevertheless, Wordsmith insisted I continue writing my story someday. Maybe he’s right? Maybe I should.

It was quite strange going to a soccer game as a date. I found myself talking a lot to Wordsmith, but having my eyes focus on the soccer field instead of looking at his face. I admit, this was a combination of focusing on the soccer match that we came to see, as well as being slightly bashful. I wonder if he noticed? I also hope he didn’t think I talked too much because I feel like that I did!

During the game I kept hoping for Melbourne Heart to score whilst often saying, “Come on, Hearts! Give me something to cheer about!” The scores ended up being 0 – 2 to Everton. In tennis “0” is said to be “love“. So I guess, “Love… Hearts?” Yeah, I’m a goose. When Wordsmith and I spoke during the match, our conversations would often continue on to a completely different topic, and then continue again to another story. It became one story, after another, after another and when we realised how far we had gotten with our stories, it took us time to both backtrack and wonder how we got so far with our conversations. Thankfully for me, Wordsmith is clever and has a really good memory.

After the game, we went for a hot chocolate to keep to the offer that Wordsmith originally gave me. I sipped it happily whilst walking around the city with him. I’m glad we decided to walk around instead of taking a train or a tram; walking is one of my favourite past times and it definitely gave us more time to converse with each other. The more and more as the evening went, the more tired I became. I found myself yawning and rubbing my eyes more and more often throughout the night. It wasn’t so bad however, as I recall Wordsmith saying, “Tired is cute!” referring to me.

During our date, I had mentioned to Wordsmith that I didn’t date around a lot, if at all. He had asked me, “Why?” but somehow I avoided the question, definitely not deliberately. Before our date ended, Wordsmith repeated his question asking, “How come you don’t date around a lot?” My only response was, “Because I don’t think anyone would want to date me! I was actually freaking out that nobody would want to apply to see me on 100 Dates!” From Wordsmith‘s reaction, he honestly thought my thoughts were absurd.

Although Wordsmith and I had spent a few hours together, the time passed so quickly. Next thing I knew, I was departing and our date was ending. “I’d like to see you again.” he told me, and kissed me on the cheek before I jumped onto my bus to go home. I peeked through the window as I walked to my seat watching Wordsmith walk away. He didn’t turn his head to look back into the bus windows, and thankfully I was glad that he didn’t catch me staring at him, as that would’ve been weird.

I cradled my hot chocolate in my hands as the bus began to pull away from the city towards home. There I was, sitting on the bus happily with my promised hot chocolate, and with my soul still perfectly intact! I repeated Wordsmith‘s parting words in my head again. “I’d like to see you again.”

When I finally got home, I texted Wordsmith to let him know that I got home safely, and thanked him for the lovely night. He replied me with, “I’m glad you got back home okay! Hope I’ll see you again soon, but now it’s time for us to get some rest!” I couldn’t agree more, and now after finally finishing typing up this entry, I think I shall.

“Goodnight!“