Page 19 of The App Trap
“That sounded better in my head. Come on, let’s go to the room.”
We ushered each other into the hotel room, picking up from where we left off in the corridor.
As Harry made sure the door was firmly closed, he grabbed me and kissed me again, becoming increasingly more passionate, whilst walking backwards towards the bed, pulling me with him. Neither of us could wait for whatever was about to happen, despite us promising to be on our best behaviour, but that was when Harry stopped in his tracks and spoke, gulping down an ecstatic breath caused by our explosive kiss.
“I… I’m not in for anything serious. I just wanted to say that upfront. I do totally like you and I’m havingsucha fun evening,” he said with a smile as I stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish, well… breaking my heart?
For some reason, my brain told my face to smile, then kicked the following words out from between my lips:
“Oh God, me neither.”
The words were acting as a kind of buffer while I processed this. Here was a man I had a phenomenal connection with that was funny, gorgeous, generous, sexy and lots of other things I was so excited to find out about. I suppose what I really thought wasOh well, I’m sure I can change his mind.
The mood in theroom had changed for sure and by the way Harry stilled, I wasn’t the only one that noticed.
“I just wanted to be honest is all,” he whispered.
“Absolutely. I get it, you’re not ready to settle down yet. Right?”
Harry looked sullen.
“Something like that. Fuck, I’ve really killed the moment, haven’t I? Sorry,” he said.
“Well, yeah, I think you’ll have to take the hit for this one.”
Harry playfully shoved my shoulder as a smile crept back onto his face.
“Dick.”
“Oh, you noticed,” I said, signalling down to the utterly inappropriate erection bulging in my jeans.
“Shall we just carry on with what we were doing, then?” he said.
“What kind of monsters would we be if we didn’t?” I replied.
And so, we stripped to our Thursday pants and carried on enjoying each other… but not too much; wewerebeing good, after all.
After a while, when the ravishing of each other had sobered us up somewhat, Harry leaned into me, kissing my neck, then asked me the question I was dying to hear:
“Mini bar?”
“Mini bar,” I replied, excitedly.
Half an hour later, we’d demolished the mini bar––Pringles, Mars Bar, Nobby’s Nuts, poshcorn et al––and promptly passed out. There were going to be two gigantic hangovers tomorrow, which ensured that both of our Friday nights would consist of a visit from a man on a moped and hours of poking around on streaming service menus trying to find something decent to watch.
It was everything a perfect first date should be, except that Harry was the person that was about to change everything for me. He was about to teach me the ways of the Serial Online Dater.
In fact, it’s safe to say that he was the one that truly set me off on the path to the dark side. As you’re about to find out, he was the Emperor Palpatine to my Anakin Skywalker; the Tyler Durden to my Edward Norton; the John Kreese to whoever that shitty blonde kid was inThe Karate Kid.You get the gist.
In the morning, I didn’t find the conversation with Harry awkward at all. The morning-after drunken sex with a stranger can sometimes be a tricky affair at the best of times. One doesn’t always want their sparring partner to stick around for long, but in Harry’s case, I didn’t feel the slightest need to concoct an escape alibi.
I liked him. I’d actually met somebody through the medium of 5G that I really liked––and relatively quickly in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, I liked Ben as well, but Harry just seemed less… well, dangerous. The dating apps had served their purpose. That was what it was invented for––to find a soul mate and stick with him. And Mum was going to love him.
So, being old-fashioned and a bit of a square, I asked Harry out again; as you do.
What he replied with really knocked me for six. It wasn’t a good old-fashioned rejection, which I could have taken and been upset about for a few days until I’d managed to entice someone else out. Oh no. I could have dealt with that.
