A year in people #39 – the hot Australian

“Do you guys mind if I sit here?”. I pointed to a bean bag, in the recovery zone at Ultra Trail Australia next to a small group of men chatting.

“No, you go ahead.”

I dropped down, quite literally, with a big “Oh!” on the bean bag, as it was most certainly not as comfortable as it looked.

“I take it that wasn’t quite the landing you’d hoped for?” said a pretty damn attractive guy. He had twinkly, kind eyes and a cheeky smile. Oh hello.

“Nope.”

He laughed. “Did you do the run?”

We traded stories about the 50km we’d both just done, and he told me it was just a fun run and a bit of training for an Ironman he’d got coming up. Ohhhh you fit thing you.

His mates got up and left us to it, and after about 15 minutes of us chatting away like old friends he had to go. We’d really hit it off. One of those conversations that was just so very easy from the start.

“It was really nice to meet you Tara”, he said as we shook hands. Our eyes met for a few seconds as neither of us quite let go. Damn you’ve got nice eyes.

We’d mentioned we were both [separately] going to head into town later that evening. I’d really have liked to have chatted more, and as I watched him walk away I half wondered whether I should have asked him if he fancied meeting up.

Meh. I figured if we were meant to meet again, the universe would work it out. I was too busy revelling in the post race achievement-slash-relief to give much more thought to a random cute guy.

I couldn’t be arsed to get changed. I was in bright orange compression socks, an old pair of joggers with a thermal hiking top and my trail trainers.

Maddie, one of the girls in the room, was asking me whether she should change into her jeans. She had a date with a guy she’d met a couple of days earlier.

“Look at me. Am I really one to be giving fashion advice?” I laughed. “I’m heading out in these on a Saturday night.”

We headed into Katoomba and chose a pub where the bus dropped us off. I was SO ready for this pint. I made for the bar, with a no-nonsense-give-me-a-drink stride but still managed to do an auto scan of the room as we walked in and yep, you’ve guessed it – who should be in there but Mr Sexy Eyes himself.

Maybe the universe does listen.

I didn’t quite catch his eye – played it way too cool for that – but I did glance around in his general direction. With a hair swish for good measure.

It worked. He went to the toilet, the way back was right past me; he made sure we couldn’t miss each other.

“TARA!” He shouted, with a massive grin.

“Oh! Heyyyy. Fancy seeing you here.”

“How you doing? Do you want a drink?” he asked. I pointed at my pint. “Already got one, but thanks.”

He was super quick to ditch his friends and come join us. Maddie’s date turned up, then Mike (another guy she vaguely knew from Brissy) and there we were, a small motley crew of strangers brought together by running a long way in the mountains. A band started to play, the lovebirds headed off and poor Mike sat there while Hot Guy and I had no time for anyone but each other. Because the music was so loud it was hard to have a conversation with anyone that wasn’t sat right next to you, you see.

Eventually we moved to a quieter part of the bar, right opposite Hot Guy’s friends. “Don’t you want to go sit with your mates?” I asked. Looking me straight in the eye, he replied “No, definitely not.”

Soon another guy he knew came and joined us, evening out the people-to-conversation ratio. But the band were pretty awesome and soon we were all (except Mike) up dancing. We were the only people in the whole pub dancing, but that didn’t matter. We saw a woman in sunglasses sat slumped against the wall, not moving an inch.

“Do you think she’s alright?”

“Is she asleep?”

“Is she dead?!”

“Have you seen Weekend at Bernies?” Hot Guy shouted. “OH MY GOD YES!!!” I shrieked. My belly ached from laughing. She wasn’t dead, thankfully, and came to join us in our dancing.

“You’re probably thinking I’m a bit of a twat for wearing sunglasses inside?” Errrr. “They’re prescription, I forgot to bring my normal glasses and I can’t see.” Aha!

We gradually got more people up – we literally grabbed them by the hands – and soon the whole room was grooving. We were having an AWESOME time. One of those fun spontaneous nights. I couldn’t stop having a glance across the dancefloor at Hot Guy, and him back at me. I am SO attracted to you right now.

Eventually the band stopped and the bar started to pack up.

“Let’s go for cocktails!” This guy was on my wavelength.

Mike headed home and Hot Guy, Other Guy and me stumbled across a live music place filled with massive teddy bears and people in pyjamas. I thought it was some weird Australian thing but the poster on the wall advertising a pyjama party night solved the mystery.

As much as Hot Guy and I had been hitting it off, it still took me by surprise when he turned around and kissed me. A full-on-full-of-passion-can’t-get-enough-of-you kiss. Oh HELLO you.

This was definitely just one of those one night things. We lived in different countries and there was just a sense of it, from both of us.

Some hours of enjoying each other’s company later. “You’re single, right?”

“No, I’m married. Got three kids.”

Oh.

Well.

Two things to take away from this:

1. You can go out in old tracky bottoms, bright orange compression socks and no make up and still pull someone
2. Married men don’t always wear wedding rings

What a night though.