Booty Call
Being single is shrouded in many myths, but the biggest one is the one regarding sex. Couples tend to think that we single people have someone new every night (wishful thinking). Sure, we would like that, but it’s more complicated than you’d think (we have our careers to focus on, after all).
As I started writing down my thoughts on the world of single people’s sex life, I instinctively wanted to write about “dating”, but now I think what I really mean is “booty call”. Let’s not even call it “a meeting”, since it’s usually action-packed and there is very few words exchanged. It’s not a date, for a date does not by definition start (or end) in his or in your apartment. When someone here says they have a “date” at 10 pm, we smile and say: “A-ha, a booty call”, or “a hook-up”, or simply “sex”. If the guy proposes a late hour for a meeting in a bar not further than 3 blocks away from his place, I hope you are not deluding yourself into thinking that it’s all about getting to know each other better…? A hook-up starts with a drink at a bar, and usually once you are finishing your first one, you will hear: “So, we’re getting a check, right?”. Unless the chemistry needs further tweaking: in that case, you keep guzzling booze to blur your vision. Sometimes that doesn’t help, either, but you don’t resign that easily since you made all this way to his neighborhood and it would be kind of lonely to simply get on the train and go back home, right?
All this is so commonplace here, one really talks of it as if one would be talking the weather. A usual exchange goes along these lines: “I had a date last night” – “Oh, a date?” – “You know, we ended up at his place” – “How was it?” – “Nothing great, but it wasn’t bad” – “Will you see him again” – “I don’t know, maybe once, so that he doesn’t think I am a calculating bitch”.
Sure, this doesn’t happen as often as you’d think, but when you live in NYC (and use online dating services) it truly could happen every day. And even if some of you in relationships think it’s cold and calculated, do admit you also are a bit jealous.
