A Little Haste for the Holidays - "Just Call Me"

I had a date the Thursday before Christmas. It was a nice evening, caught my favorite Christmas Movie, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, at a local bar, then headed out for tapas - where I proceeded to slide across the restaurant floor as if figure-skating were my true hidden talent. Since he did not mock me at my misfortune, laughed at all of my jokes, AND called me beautiful I thought it was certainly worth a second date, but Saturday you ask? I gave my go-to answer "just call me." Friday night I had big plans with friends in town, and Saturday I was planning on spending in recovery mode. Saturday afternoon came around, and he called me. I explained that I was fairly cracked-out from having stayed out until 5am, and waking up at 1pm. This did not seem to phase him, so I obliged, and we cooked dinner and watched a movie. He asks again, "when can I see you next?", and I reply, "just call me." Well, he does. He calls me the next day to wish me a Merry Christmas, to see if I would be interested in hanging out that night, and then to say, "I also have a small gift I want to bring by"….hives spread over my body, and my throat begins to close. A present!!?? What to think! I quickly declined his invitation to hang out (I was planning on spending the entire day in my pajamas anyway), and then he asked if I would be interested in hanging out the next day. Geeez, this guy certainly doesn't beat around the bush. So I said "just call me." As you can imagine my mind began racing about what the gift could actually be? Why would someone who has only been out with me twice want to give me a gift? What if it was inappropriate, could I give him the ole "I can't accept this?" Would I feel differently if I were totally in to him? I know, I know, women like me should be accustomed to getting showered with gifts, I should be appreciative of his thoughtful gesture, but I'm not. I'm a total bitch who gets creeped out when guys jump the gun, express interest in me too soon, and are actually polite gentleman (and yet, I always bitch when my boyfriends can't do these things). So I got the call on the 26th, but I didn't answer the phone. I kind of wanted to wait in hopes that I would dash any of his plans to grab dinner or catch a flick, so I did wait and wouldn't you know he was headed to dinner w/ his family…phew. But then he asked if he could come by afterwards to bring me the gift. I once again thrusted into panic mode and said, you got it, "just call me." Is it fair for me to go from "could-be-interested" to "sick-to-my-stomach" in such a short amount of time? He called around 9 pm to see if it was still kosher to stop-by. I mean, I couldn't really say no at this point. So he did, and brought me "the gift". You can imagine how relieved I felt when I opened the door and noticed a wine bottle gift bag. But then again, you can never be too sure. So as the package portrayed it was a bottle of wine (always appreciated), and surprise! two mix CD's, which were also appreciated, but hilariously reminiscent of Junior High. The most classic part of the CD's were the fact that they were labeled: "Ginger Ann's Bluegrass Mix" and "Ginger Ann's Pop Mix". I think in adulthood when appropriately labeling mix CD's you are to either a)come up with a clever title, or b) put your own name as the possessive, or c) no names attached at all. Names only give permanent reminders. Yes, they are a gift to me, but I'm not sure I want to claim the songs on either CD not having experienced a dry-run.

It certainly could have been worse, and they're definitely the kind of gifts you wouldn't feel bad for accepting if you had to drop the axe the next week. I wonder if he thought it odd that I told him he needed to leave as I had to "mentally prepare" for work the next day.