A Waste of Good Wine...

I recently spent several nights staying at one of my favorite chic Manhattan hotels. While my primary purpose for the visit was work, there was also ample opportunity to enjoy the hotel’s social spaces while entertaining clients each evening. This most recent stay was my third visit to the hotel and while certainly not unique to one city, hotel or venue, it is my experience that this particular hotel lounge seems to draw an unusually high number of over-confident, overly-aggressive men seeking to interact with the opposite sex.

My first experience was nearly a year ago as I sat in the same lounge, sipping a glass of white wine, awaiting my client’s arrival. I noticed a gentleman standing approximately ten feet away, staring and smiling at me as he leaned against the faux fireplace hearth of the dim, candle-lit lounge. He appeared to be attractive and well-dressed in a European-cut business suit. And at first glance, I did not actually view him as a potential suitor but rather earnestly tried to determine if he was the managing partner of the firm with whom I was currently meeting with during my daytime hours in the city. I had met the partner approximately a year before and in the dim lighting, I suspected it was him and felt a bit embarrassed that I was uncertain. Accordingly, as he continued to smile, I smiled back and gave a subtle wave, slightly lifting my hand off of my chair’s armrest. It was at that exact moment that my client arrived; we greeted one another and immediately became engaged in conversation. When I finally looked around the room several minutes later, the mysterious man had disappeared.

A couple of hours and a couple of glasses of wine later, I bid farewell to my client and walked through hotel lobby to the elevator bank. As I paused to press the elevator call button, Mystery Man appeared at my side. As I looked over, he smiled and I quickly realized he was not the firm’s managing partner, but rather a complete stranger to me. He wasted no time in introducing himself and telling me he had watched me all evening (hmmm, flattering or stalker-ish?), intending to approach me but then becoming shy when my friend arrived. He insisted I join him for a glass of wine and while he was certainly a bit too aggressive for my taste, he was handsome, it was still early and so I agreed. He quickly procured two glasses of pinot noir and we selected a quiet table in the corner of the lounge. He began asking me questions about myself but I immediately realized that while the questions were thoughtful and creative, he did not allow me to answer a single one of them. Our conversation went something like this:

Him: What are your three favorite things to do in Manhattan?
Me: Well, I always love to...
Him: YES!!! Me TOOIADOREManhattanthatswhyI’velivedhereforthepastsixyearsand
lovelivingontheuppereastsidewhereIhaveabeautifulcondothatIboughttwoyearsago…BLAH BLAH BLAH!

It became clear within less than five minutes that I was long overdue to bid this man goodnight and accordingly, I opted to finish the last two thirds of my wine in a few quick gulps (poor form but I just couldn’t abandon a full glass!). I swallowed the final drops as he was describing at length how amazingly “in tune” he was with women due to the fabulous listening (huh??) lessons his beloved mother had taught him… Really?! Was this a joke?? Perhaps I was on Candid Camera??

He politely escorted me back to the elevators where he removed his cell phone from his pocket and advised me that I was going to give him my number so that he could take me to dinner on my next trip to the city. As I attempted to think of a somewhat polite but firm reply, I asked him one defining question: “Do you even remember my name?” He smiled sweetly and in his best attempt to be smooth, he asked if it really mattered, explaining I would simply be listed as the “Most Beautiful Blonde I’ve Ever Met” in his phone…

Ummm, yeah… actually, it DID matter. It mattered a lot. And, thanks to his response, I felt not a single pang of guilt as I simply turned my back to him and walked into the waiting elevator…alone.


Lemon: There’s a quote that offers the following advice: to actually get someone interested in oneself, one must simply be sincerely interested in that OTHER PERSON… end of story.

Honey: hmmm, perhaps that nice glass of wine…