Love Bites

This story is from Kate, a 24-year-old merchandising assistant in NYC, as told to Raz:

Steven was introduced to me by a friend one night at a club. He was a year younger than me, and it turns out, went to my high school. After talking for a while, we discovered that he’d actually been close with my little brother and they’d played soccer together. We hung out the whole night, except mysteriously, every half hour or so, he’d disappear for 15-minute intervals. ‘Whatever,’ I thought. ‘It’s none of my business where he’s running off to.’ After one such episode, he announced his return by pulling me into a private corner and kissing me. It was a pleasant surprise.

The next week, he called me to ask me out to a movie. As soon as we met up, he grabbed my hand, pulled me into the alley next to the movie theater and started kissing me. This was not a pleasant surprise. This was disgusting. I was literally pressed up against a dumpster. When he tried to take off my shirt, I drew the line, and told him it was time to leave the alley.

But as soon as we stopped kissing, we had very little to talk about. He asked about my brother again. Then we walked into the movie theater in near silence. Finally he said, “You know, I used to work at Citibank.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, girls always like that about me. I still have my badge if you want to see it some time.” I did not want to see his badge—I wanted to leave.

As soon as we sat in out seats, my friend who had introduced Steven to me at the club texted me. What a coincidence, I thought, since I hadn’t even told her we were going out.

“Did you know Claire’s been dating my friend Steven?” she asked in her text (Claire is a mutual friend of ours). “I introduced them at that club last weekend, and apparently they were sneaking off to make out that whole night. She says they’re going out for their third date tomorrow. It’s only been a week!”

Ah, the mysterious absences from our club night conversations were explained. What a bastard.

“Who’s that?” he asked.

“No one,” I said, slipping my phone back into my purse.

When the previews started to roll, he went in for the kiss, and I didn’t pull away. Instead, I went straight for his neck. How many hickeys can a girl give a guy during a two-hour movie? Let’s just say his neck looked like it had been in a boxing match and lost. My work there was done, and I heard he and Claire had a pretty epic conversation on their date the next night.