The Gentleman from Florida

So... I paid for Tinder so I can swipe anywhere in the world. It is interesting to see what demographics look like in other places. I've swiped all over the States and then expanded my horizons to Melbourne and London and Edinburgh and Dublin. After my trip to Lebanon I decided to check out Dubai and Jeddah and Doha. I have traveled all over the world and I have met some really cool people, right from the comfort of my own bed.

One man I met on Tinder in Florida read my entire blog and then proceeded to send me really long messages about it and about himself and his life. His messages were nice but so random.

For example, he told me he made tomato sauce as a second job and asked me if I would like him to send me some.

RANDOM.

Random, but nice, right? Right!!???????...????

I did not take him up on that offer.

But, he was friendly and he was really into my writing and he kept the conversation going and going so I responded as often as I could.

About a month ago, he told me he would be driving through DC on his way to pick up his daughter and asked if I would be interested in him taking me out to dinner.

Given that he had been such a fan of my blog and gave me a month's notice, I couldn't not say yes.

So I did.

So, almost two months after he first contacted me we finally met and he generously treated me to dinner at Le Diplomate, a very nice restaurant in DC.

And... he brought me tomato sauce. It was so weird. But weird in a very nice way.

His timing was perfect too, since I am currently unemployed. I know what I will be eating for the next few weeks... because he brought me FIVE JARS.

Anyway, our outing was fine, there is no exciting story to tell here except that at dinner, he divulged to me that he was picking up his daughter in Atlanta.

Um, he lives in Florida.

There is nothing about driving from Florida to Atlanta that includes DC being on the way. And that is when he told me he drove eleven hours just to meet me before driving eleven hours back to pick up his daughter the next day. Twenty-two hours for a dinner with me.

So, no pressure.

But actually, there really was no pressure. He really just wanted to meet me and take me out for a nice dinner. He didn't even hint at continuing to enjoy my company in his hotel room afterwards - a hotel that he paid for just so he could take me out to dinner.

At the end of our evening, he drove me home and dropped me off.

After handing me my jars of tomato sauce, he gave me a hug goodbye. It was a simple hug. It wasn't a long, lingering, let-me-press-my-body-against-yours-so-I-can-feel-you hug, it was just a friendly hug - a proper hug for a man to give a woman he doesn't really actually know.

That hug meant a lot to me. It told me that he really had just wanted to meet me. He wanted to give me the gift of his time, his attention, his tomato sauce. He drove 1000 miles just for a dinner with me and he really asked for nothing in return.

God, that felt good.

After I got back upstairs and put the tomato sauce away, I got this message from him:

You were worth 1000 miles in the car. Thank you.

No.

Thank YOU.


[Update: I tried the tomato sauce and OMG IT WAS THE BEST TOMATO SAUCE EVER. I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you want to try it you can buy it here and no, I am not making any money or anything like that for telling you this, I am just really excited about it!]

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