I recently met a girl with a pretty incredible “how we met” story. And that’s coming from me.
It all started because she needed to sublet one bedroom of the three-bedroom she lived in. So she did what any New Yorker would do – she posted it on Craiglist.
(For my foreign friends – Craiglists is like the phone book on crack — online ,except in place of business-created business listings they feature people-posted anything-you-could-ever-image listings, plus. Probably best to check it out.)
The girl consulted with her roommate and create a posting that best represented their place and their ideal lifestyle. Plenty of light, high ceilings, great neighborhood – clean and conscientious, no pets, parties but not too much — the typical 27-year-old living in Gramercy routine. What they mistakenly left out was gender.
You see where this is going.
This girl got responses from hundreds of people – a mix of guys and girls. She read them, considered the potential personality and gave call-backs to the people in top consideration. She and her roommate agreed they would consider either gender.
Among the call-backs was this guy.
He was clean and conscientious. He didn’t have any pets. He partied, but not too much. And he was looking for just that kind of light and just those kind of ceilings in just that kind of neighborhood.
“You know that sort of thing doesn’t happen very often,” she said to me, “I mean, really, what are the chances?!”
“Sister, you are preaching to the choir,” I said.
There was no doubt he would have made an excellent roommate by any standards, but this girl had tons of potential roommates to choose from. What she didn’t have were tons of clean and conscientious guys maybe kiss-kissing her goodnight.
The next day she called him and explained that they’d decided to go with a female roommate for a lot of reasons. But, she said, it was really great to meet you and I had a fantastic time last night and would you maybe want to get together again sometime soon?
“Honestly,” she told me, “I didn’t give him the room because I wanted to date him.”
“Oh, I know that,” I said.
Now, logic would lead you to believe he’d completely understand their desire to live with a third girl. It might also leave you thinking, sure, this guy spent a whole night with her ending in what may have been a romantic gesture – of course he’d want to get another drink with her. This is Manhattan, you might think — clean and conscientious girls are hard to find.
Dude was so furious that she refused him that nice-sized room in that really cheap apartment on that totally convenient street that he refused her a second slash first date.
“He was all, ‘how could you so selfishly deny me affordable housing at a time like this and then think I’d ever date you!’” she told me, “I mean – I was shocked. We really hit it off!”
“Well,” I said, “people taking apartments pretty seriously here….”
“Yeah,” she said, “the whole thing was just totally unbelievable.”
But Hhmm, I thought, as I retold this story to everyone I know and some people I quite frankly don’t.
He happened to be more desperate for that apartment than she’d have imagined, but what if he wasn’t? What if it had actually worked out?
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Speaking of crazy “how we met” stories… What is the update on Matt?
i don’t want to sound mean to this girl…but is it possible she was being romanced solely to get this apartment?
Just goes to show ya…girls believe in fate far more than guys do! Bummer! I liked where that story was going. 🙁
He totally should have waited til he signed a lease to start smooching! It’s like having a prenup– heartbreaking, but you get to keep your stuff.
She really should have told him they were leaning towards a girl roommate before taking the guy on a date. She knew he wanted the apartment before she thought he might want her. Some guys are dumb enough to think they could get both.
OMG, this made me laugh out loud! You always hear the stories about NYers cruising the obits for apartment vacancies, but I like this lost love angle even better.
Hi Jessie,
I figure you’ll see this article anyway, but just in case you missed it, I thought you’d want it for a post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/opinion/13blow.html?em
Brian
He should have decided before kissing her what he wanted more – the apartment or the girl. If he wanted the apartment, keep it in your pants. If you want the girl- kiss her and wave g’bye to the apartment. (If he even thought for a second he wanted both, I’m telling him he doesn’t.)
I think he’s the idiot solely because he could have quite potentially gotten one or the other, but chose neither. His fault, not hers.
You are using the word ‘gender’ incorrectly.
Gender refers to masculine or feminine pronouns only, such as he/she, his/hers, etc.
Sex refers to whether someone is a man or woman.
So your sentence, “what they mistakenly left out was gender” should read, “what they mistakenly left out was sex.”