Night Out with the (Married) Girls

The thing about being divorced at age 30 for me is that most of my friends are married or significantly involved with someone.    That means, of course, that Girls' Night Out turns into Allow-Us-All-to-Live-Vicariously-Through-You Night Out.

This is not me complaining—trust me, no smart woman my age complains about her drop-dead-gorgeous friends going around looking for single guys to buy drinks for you.  Even if I'm not interested in the guy they picked out, who is going to turn down a free drink?  And us girls do have to watch out for each other and all that.

So a few nights ago, my girlfriends and I venture to happy hour after work.  After the obligatory socializing (a.k.a. gossip session) is over and we have all caught up completely on one another's lives, my group begins to scout out the local prey.

"Dolly, who are those guys over there talking to your husband?  They are cute...,"  remarks my friend Stella with her most approving look.  Rowdy is nodding in agreement next to her.

"And they are single," smirks Dolly over her drink.

I intervene, astonished.  "How on earth do you manage this?  The longest-married one of us, and you happen to know more single men than the rest of us put together!  Where do you find them?!"

We all laugh, knowing that's the truth, and conversation moves on to discuss the appeal of each of the two available men who have now been spotted, but I still am thinking—this is completely the reality.  Whenever you are married or otherwise not looking, you meet single, attractive, decent men by the hundreds; they practically fall from the sky.  However, once you are available and able to date said single, attractive, decent men, you have to rely on your happily-married friends to bring them around for you, because they certainly are not going to show up on their own.  Newton must have come up with some law for that.  Like:  "Every single man who is nearby tends to stay nearby unless an external force of single women comes near him."  Or maybe not.

A few drinks later and my girls have proceeded to:

1. Drag me out to the dance floor (yeah, really twisted my arm, I tell ya) to flaunt myself to single men that might be watching nearby;
2. Convince a nearby group of guys that it is my birthday and they should buy me a shot;
3. Provoke me into casually bumping into a guy so I can give him a winning smile and then corner said guy to ask if he was interested in their friend (me); and
4. Subtly maneuver me into conversations with Dolly's single guy friends by finding common interests.

I start up a conversation with one of Dolly's friends, and it actually goes very well.  He is 40 years old (a bit on the old side for me), never been married (could be a bad sign), and works in sales (normal, stable career).  He has a very adorable dimpled smile, which he points out to me as his winning feature, so there is slight concern there--no guy should be commenting on their winning feature as their first impression, I should just walk away knowing it without comment.

All in all, the night was a total blast, and single guy friend asks for my number.  He calls two days later to set up a date for the next week.  So here we go, Round 2 of post-divorce dating with Mr. ...  Well, let's just call him 'Dimples.'

Forever fearless,
Dumbfounded Divorcée