'Twas the night before Casey's holiday (St. Patrick's Day) when she waltzed into RTB to meet her latest Hinge match for a drink. It was the regular loud Raise the Bar Wednesday with karaoke contestants lining the bar seats when she recognized a familiar face sitting at his usual bar stool.

He sat there with his arms crossed wearing a motorcycle t-shirt and a ball cap with his eyes peeled people watching, and convincingly pretending to be interested in whatever sports game was on. Casey came in scanning the bar for her date when she recognized him as her ex-boyfriend's sister's boyfriend.

(Are you still with me, or did I completely lose you with that one?)

When it dawned on her that their only connection was their exes, she couldn't decide whether or not to go over to say hello. But as Casey usually cannot resist a conversation, she timidly went over to address the elephant in the bar.

"Hello" she exclaimed as they exchanged an awkward side of the cheek "kiss".

"What's going on?" He replied with a smile.

Casey did not know whether to be relieved he remembered her, or embarrassed by how he knew her, but without hesitation, Casey blurted out, "How's (insert Paul's ex's name)?" He chuckled, and said, "we're no longer together," to which he responded with, "How's (insert Casey's ex's name)?"

The awkward could be sliced with a butterknife, but they locked eyes and laughed as Casey explained they had too in fact broken up a long, long, time ago.

Now that that interaction was over with, Casey enjoyed a Corona as she waited for her date who was already on strike two for being a half hour late, following strike one for her having to be the one to set up their first date. As she waited, she caught Paul's glances from across the bar, and before she knew it, in came her date.

"Strike three," she thought as he walked in about 6 inches shorter than his dating profile stated he is. Coming straight from work, he dashed right past Casey to the restroom not realizing who she was. Before she could run out the front door, Paul spotted him and saw the look on Casey's face which prompted him to come right over to Casey. With a smirk on his face, he draped his arm around Casey's shoulder and jokingly asked, "You're not going home with that d*****bag, right?" Without hesitation, she answered, "absolutely not!"

Casey did allow the poor guy to talk for (only) about fifteen minutes before she faked a bad stomachache, and convinced him she'd be leaving as soon as her uber came to save her. He left, and Casey found herself sitting at the bar alone deleting each and every dating app, convinced it was a colossal waste of time, and coming to peace with being single for the rest of her life.

She chugged the remainder of her Corona, asked for her tab, and waited until she received her receipt for the catastrophe of a night she had had. To her surprise, the tab came with a phone number on the back with a note that said "I don't care if you never use this number again, but please do at least use it to let me know you got home safe."

She rolled her eyes, crumbled up the paper, and threw it in her purse with not one intention of another interaction with the male species for a long time. She thought about it the whole way home, and then tossed and turned in her bed, until she decided to uncrumble his note, swallow her pride, and to send him the "I'm home" text.

From that night on, he never left her alone!

Travel

Travel coming soon!