Calling Miss Zumba

I was thinking about Preeti all day today.  This morning I sent her a text, ‘Hi Preeti! Hope you had a good time with your friends last night?’  She responded, ‘Morning, yeah it was nice. Have a good day at work!’  It was a simple response but the fact she replied was good enough for me.

I left work early and got home at 5pm.  Was 5 o’clock too early to call her?  What if she’s out with friends?  ‘Duck it’ I thought, I want to talk to her so I rang her.

I scrolled through the names in my phone and got to Preeti.  Just seeing her name gave me butterflies in my stomach.  I pressed the call button and waited for it to ring.  It started to ring.  It carried on ringing.  I normally let the phone ring for 30 seconds or let it go to voicemail (whichever comes first) before hanging up.  I hung up after 30 seconds.

Not a good start.  I decided to get on with preparing my dinner and would try her again afterwards.  As I was cooking I was thinking, ‘was she ignoring me because she’s not interested?’ ‘Was I being too keen?’

It got to 7pm and I was doing the washing up when the phone rang.  It was Preeti so I ripped of my washing-up gloves to pick up the phone.

“Hello,” I answered, in what I hoped was a smooth tone.

“Hi, sorry I missed your call.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.  How are you?”

“Yeah, I’m well thanks.  I’m in the hotel now, packing my stuff before I leave tomorrow.”

She has a soft brummie accent which I find cute.  We chatted for several minutes; she told me about her work in corporate finance in Birmingham and that she comes down to London occasionally for conferences and visit friends and family.

I was interested to know what religion as I wasn’t too sure so I asked her.

“My mum’s Sikh and my dad’s Hindu. I’ve got the best of both worlds.  You?”

“I’m Sikh.”   Ideally I would like to date someone who’s Sikh and have only been in relationships with Sikh girls.  I’ve never met someone who believed and practised both religions but I thought that this good only be a good a thing.  A girl who understands the two main religions of the Motherland would be perfect to educate our kids on them.  Was I mad to be thinking about children this early?

I was eager to change the topic and actually ask about seeing her, “So, when are you going back to Birmingham?”

“My train leaves Euston at 1740 tomorrow.”

“I’d like to see you before you go.  Are you free tomorrow lunchtime?”

“I’m seeing my friends before I go. Y’know, the ones from Zumba.”

This wasn’t going the way I planned.  I wanted to see her.  I had to see her.  “Let’s to breakfast tomorrow.”

“What?” she said in a startled voice.

“I can come to your hotel and we’ll have breakfast.  You know I’m only calling you because I’m interested and I want us to get to know each other.”

There was a silence.

“Errr,” she hesitated.

“Which hotel are you staying in?” I asked.

“You’re persistent, aren’t you?”

“Obviously.”

It was silent again and I thought she was going to put the phone down on me.

“I’m staying at The Marriot on Park Lane.  What time were you thinking about meeting up?”

I was relieved that she hadn’t hung up.

“I’ll meet you at your hotel at 9am or it that too early for you?”

“Make it 10.”  She was playing hard to get but I like that.  A girl shouldn’t make it easy for a guy and it’s a good way to test how interested he really is.

“Excellent!  I look forward to seeing to you.”

We finished off our call and once I hung up I danced to myself in the living room, pleased at the fact that I was going to see Preeti.  I then made my way to the bedroom, opened my wardrobe and pulled out random tops and jeans and decide what to wear tomorrow.  I wanted to wear my yellow jumper but it’s not washed so I’ve decided I would wear my red one.  I am going to wear the same clothes I wore when I met Amrita but hopefully this time the date will go more smoothly.  I was going to text her tonight but decided not to as I don’t want her to think I’m desperate!  I can’t wait for tomorrow morning to come round.  My alarm’s set for 7am which is super early for a Saturday but it gives me plenty of time to shave, shower and have a croissant before heading out to see her.  I’m so excited.