Leading up to the night of dinner, I was a little restless, going back and forth over scenarios of the event. I was starting to get a little anxious, but that would be normal. I took myself out of the scene, thought objectively and viewed it from the perspective of the others.

Before I did that, I profiled them. I thought I would give the parties involved names. The idea came about when I arrived at the apartment floor of my ML’s place. So, Minnie would be my ML. Mickey, her boyfriend. Daisy, my ML’s younger sister. And I would call myself, Goofy…

Minnie. I met her at a shop and started seeing her quite regularly for a few years. She is fun, carefree, confident and daring. She likes to party, indulges in recreational drugs and speaks her mind. She wears her hair short, almost like an ugly bowl cut, streaked platinum blonde. Although, it does look sexy on her. She has smaller eyes, darker skin, a few tattoos, a tongue piercing and is a chain smoker.

A lot taller than me, with an athletic built and very flexible. She’s not shy with men and has confessed that she initiates every relationship that she’s been in. And she has also ended every relationship that she has been in. She has a wicked sense of humour, with a devil may care attitude…

We get along extremely well, and we would be messaging outside of the shop. She would have been the type of girl that I would have dated almost a decade ago. When I use to party. Now, she is something like a WeChat friend outside of the shop. Our chats. There is nothing sexual or flirtatious. The only dirty talk we ever do is in the room, in front of each other. Outside of that, we are respectful and cordial. We share private details of each other like our background, occupation, family and relationships. We share what we feel is enough, and nothing more.

I like that about her, there is no pretence, no secrets and everything is black and white. She has never given any hints that she wanted to pursue anything further outside of a shop. Most importantly, she is loyal and trustworthy. I know that she is in a relationship, and that is where my line is drawn. We are also clear that there are no feelings for each other…

Daisy. I was introduced to her by Minnie. And have been given an OK to proceed with pursuing her. If Minnie had disagreed, I would have just dropped it. Daisy and I have been seeing each other for months. We have kissed but have not been intimate. I don’t really want our first time to be in a back seat of a Fiat! I’m wanting to arrange something special in the coming June long weekend.

I’m hoping that she can peel herself away from work and take a day off and spend a night or two away with me. She works hard, running her shop. Seven days a week she works at her bricks and mortar store from 10 to 7 pm. Then, heads home and continues fulfilling her orders online until late into the night. She doesn’t have much of a social life. After work, she facetimes her son every night, and this is the only interaction that she has, that is not with customers…

Daisy was reluctant at first to go out on a date with me, because she said that she could not commit to having a relationship, let alone having a boyfriend. She didn’t want to waste my time. I have made my intentions clear that I do want to see her, but if she decided that it was getting a bit much, we would mutually call it off. I do understand this part well…

Daisy was married in her early 20s, had her son, got divorced, and then never dated. And that is her relationship history in a nutshell. Obviously, her son is her main priority. Minnie once joked that Daisy has been dry ever since, and there was no way that I was ever going to get that river flowing again!

After the divorce, she had slowly built up her online store, before moving out to Sydney. An opportunity came, after an initial holiday. She then decided that she would stay to continue her business. That was almost a decade ago. She is now nearing 40 and soon wants to bring her son over to start high school…