Despite this complication

Our spring break travels really changed things up back at school. It was really cool to have experiences with and get closer to classmates in different years of the program. I had started to have a crush on one of the guys during the trip, but I was disappointed when my travel roomie enlightened me that the guy had a serious girlfriend. Let's call him Liam (because he's Taken...haha).

Despite this complication, Liam continued to gravitate to me as the trip progressed, and he made a quick comment about his girlfriend one day that made it sound like he didn't want to be with her anymore. When the group went out to bars during our last few nights abroad, he seemed to be making an effort to situate himself in the room so he would be close to where I was. Every time we had to weave through a crowd, he would grab my hand to help me through, holding on a bit longer than he needed to afterward. It was starting to seem like we were interested in each other, despite the GF situation.

Back at school post-spring break, I was curious to see what things would be like. He made a few gestures that made me think he was trying to make excuses to talk to me, but we actually didn't see each other at school until the end of the first week back. The first of these was at one of our on-campus happy hours, were we spent a good amount of time catching up. The second was the next day, when the business school held an event at a bar. There I was talking to a few classmates about relationships during business school, and one of the girls broke out the latest gossip: that Liam and his girlfriend had broken up.

He seemed completely fine post-breakup, so the conclusion I drew was that he had been over the relationship for some time already. I'm not sure if it actually was serious or if they were together for long. But anyway, Liam and I hopped in a cab with a few other people to meet our classmates back at one of their houses, and he and I ended up spending most of that time talking to each other. He kept demonstrating that he was interested, and we decided we wanted to go dancing at a nearby bar. No one else was game to extend the night any later, so we went by ourselves. There, my intuitions proved to be right...because he kissed me.

We have been out together several times since, and things are good. He's actually a really great kisser. I love that because I've been dealt some bad ones lately. I'm not sure what to expect from him, but that's something I intend to bring up before we continue too far. That's one thing I'm trying to do differently with guys now - just be a little bolder and actually communicate about things that are important (which, kind of heartbreakingly, is my biggest weakness in dating right now). Also, I'm trying not to "sign up" to liking a guy before he's earned it/before I've finished evaluating him. At least, with the thing we have going now, I really appreciate the effort he makes to be around me and also how social he is, and I entertain him by being ridiculous. ;)

Until next time...