The African

I had a date a lil over a week ago with a guy who I'll call "The African". Originally from Zaire but came here for school and found his way to the Big D afterwards. There were several red flags for me right off.

I hadn't heard from him the day before what would be our date and decided to call him. He said that he had been in the hospital from food poisoning. A friend showed up with some fish that you can only get in his region of Africa and so there was a dinner party to celebrate. My first thought was that the trip was a bit long for me to have wanted to eat it. He said that it was dried and so I could understand a bit more. The next thing he said was that the hostess mentioned it was a bit spoiled but she had "fixed" it. Well, the entire dinner party ended up in the hospital. As if that wasn't enough, then he tells me how sometimes people spray the fish with bug killer to keep the flies away.

Not yet over that, I still picked up the phone again when he called. That night I was going out to a jazz club about 40 miles away and he invited himself. I said okay and went on my way. He didn't show up but after some great conversation with a guy I met there and a few martinis, I hit the road before it got too late. Twenty mins into the drive home, I get a call. He had actually driven the 40+ miles but when he couldn't find the club, went to a gas station to find a map. At this point, he realized he had a flat tire. After he changed the tire, he realized that he had gotten dirty and went home with the intention of changing and coming back.

As if that wasn't enough, I still accepted his invitation to dinner the next night. He wasn't really talking when we first met and it was bad enough that I suggested we perhaps just go home. He was upset and pouting because he left home without his cell phone. He got over it and was eager to order the one thing he always got at this restaurant. He didn't have to look at the menu because he always got this one item. Our food comes and after eating half of his fries, he realizes that he can't eat his meal because it has pork in it and he stopped eating pork 2 years ago.

I'm over it but we talk. As long as we were in agreement on whatever subject it was, all was well and he was laughing and cheerful. Any time I disagreed with him about something, he got quiet and the subject was changed. By the end of everything he wasn't speaking at all and when I asked about it, I learned that by me disagreeing with him, I was being confrontational.

I think I went out with a 5 year old trapped in a man's body.