The Gentleman from Florida Part 2

If you read my last post, you know that I had been very lonely, so much so that it brought me to tears three times this one particular week back in July.

And that was just on Monday.

However, on Tuesday, the Gentleman from Florida (we can call him Robert now), messaged me with a proposition.

"I want to drive up to DC and go to the new Spy Museum. Do you want to go with me?"

To date, I'd met Robert three times:

1. When he took me out to dinner in DC "on his way" to Atlanta (see original post)
2. In Miami when he once gave me a ride from my hotel to the airport
3. In Naples, Florida when he stopped by for a quick visit with me and my parents

In my limited exposure to Robert, I found him to be nice but also odd. He has this habit of looking at you with an intense gaze that a less accepting person might perceive as more of a psychopathic stare.

We had developed a strange sort of friendship which basically consisted of him sending me hard to follow, rambling messages full of non sequiturs and me responding, because, well, I don't like to ignore people.

So, when Robert randomly contacted me and asked if I'd like to join him at the Spy Museum if he made a trip to DC, I weighed my options.

On the one hand, I had about zero desire to be dragged by an oddball through a museum I had no interest in, but, on the other, no one else was soliciting my company and I like to say yes to invitations.

I said yes.

The expectations he set were that we'd go to the museum on Saturday and that he had "somewhere to stay."

On Wednesday he contacted me, "I am here. I am going to the museum now. Do you want to have dinner?"

Relieved that I was getting to avoid the Spy Museum, I looked forward to seeing a friendly (albeit staring) face that evening.

It was too hot that July day for me to be motivated to go anywhere, so Robert agreed to join me after work at my pool, proceeded by a walk to Bethesda for dinner when it cooled off.

Surprisingly, I ended up having a lovely evening with him and actually thoroughly enjoyed his company.

After dinner, on our walk back, I asked him, "Where are you staying tonight?"

His response, "In my car."

Some context about Robert: he recently extricated himself from a very unhappy marriage. He summoned his courage and left his wife and job in order to fulfill his dream of buying a Tesla, becoming a Lyft driver, and starting to write a memoir called "Lyfting Myself Up."

But, basically, Robert is a homeless man who drives a $100,000 car.

After having shared my apartment with 71 strangers from Craigslist, there was no way I was going to let someone I actually knew sleep in his car.

When we got home, I made up the couch for Robert, said goodnight, and went to bed with my bedroom door locked. Hey, I didn't know him THAT well.

Robert ended up staying with me for three days, giving me a reprieve from the terrible loneliness that had been plaguing me.

He was my companion who did whatever I wanted - from trying the restaurants I wanted, to accompanying me to the gym, to doing a workout video with me in my living room. It was so nice to be with someone who really enjoyed and appreciated my company and whose company I was surprised to find out that I enjoyed as well.

As we took a neighborhood walk, I thought to myself, "This person who I could have written off for being 'odd' is so kind and nice and caring and comforting and just lovely." I felt like I was with a truly special human.

You know when you click with someone and they feel like they are an old family friend? That is how I felt with Robert. It was so nice and it was something I had been absolutely desperate for.

Oh, and by the way, ladies of South Florida - Robert is quite the silver fox and he has a six pack so... if you see him, swipe right!

Today we are too quick to write people off for the slightest infraction, we are quicker to assume someone is "creepy" rather than just nice. We don't want to waste our time with oddballs.

[And, we watch way too many murder dramas which instill a statistically ridiculous fear in us.]

I mean, Robert checked every creepy/oddball box when I first met him - after becoming a fan of my work, he drove eleven hours to take me out to dinner, telling me he was "on his way" to pick up his daughter and it wasn't until dessert that I found out he was "on his way" from Florida to pick up his daughter in ATLANTA which is most definitely NOT on the way to DC.

I am so glad that despite his oddness and weirdness that I didn't shut him out because I would have missed out on someone so special, whose visit breathed life back into me. Seriously.

Give people a chance, that is all. You never know when an oddball stranger might become a very dear friend. One could even say, a lifesaver.

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