This was my first official date as a single woman after James decided to call it quits.

I was a bit nervous thinking, ‘Oh what to wear…’, but since the weather was very nice, I decided to wear a blue/white dress with a cream cardigan top and cream high heels. It was late evening for our meeting, however the weather in Poland can change drastically, so I wanted to take something else for warmth. I didn’t want to take my winter jacket because it was too warm to wear and I didn’t want to take my wind/rain coat because it was warm to wear. I went through my closet to find this sliver shawl that I had bought in May this year in London to wear for a wedding and with a date that evening: James. I haven’t worn that shawl since the wedding reception party. In fact, the whole outfit was a reminder of James: The heels were worn as well for the wedding and on my birthday last year with James, the dress was first seen by James and he also helped me zip it up and the shawl.

I had to put all of these things aside and tell myself, ‘Ara, he’s no longer here. You have to make new memories. Plus, it’s just clothes!’ I walked out with all of the items on and went to meet Luke in Old Town Warsaw.

I was expecting Luke to look handsome, but he looked like any other regular day; Levi’s Jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Nothing fancy. I was expecting him in slacks, button up shirt, looking very nice and with a flower in his hand, but I guess these expectations are too high for Luke.

‘Oh I thought you were going to be in slacks.’ I said.

Luke looked puzzled. ‘What are slacks?’

The trouble of dating someone whose first language isn’t English is a bit of a challenge. You will always have to correct them, fix their sentences, and give them new slang vocabulary words. I don’t mind, but at times, it does get to you. Though I’m going to make myself a new rule when dating foreigners: date them at a C1 Level, which means proficiency.

We went around the Old Town and crossed towards New Town area where we had to sit down for a while. I had worn the wrong shoes: high heels are not good for cobbled stone streets!

‘Oh don’t sit there!’, Luke said touching the benches.

‘Why? I don’t see anything on them.’

Luke shows me his fingers, ‘You see, the bench is wet and you’ll wet your dress, so let’s find some newspaper.’

Luke is a very sweet guy. VERY SWEET! And a gentleman as well. He’s the type of guy that a lovely quiet sweet girl would love to date. But why not me? Why wouldn’t I date him? I started to have feelings for him last week during Tango, but something had changed in me.

From the bench we went to see the fountains which are located in New Town Warsaw. They are very lovely at night all lighted up.

Then I came up with a great idea. ‘Luke, why don’t we practice tango here at the park?’

Luke looked at me again with that puzzled look, ‘You want to dance in the park in front of the people? Are you sure?’

I pulled out my phone and opened up my Spotify app, ‘Yah, why not? We can find a quiet spot where there isn’t many people around and we can dance it. What do you say?’

Hesitating for a bit, a smile came across his face,’Yeah, why not! Let’s do it!’

We then found a nice little area where not too many people were walking around away from the fountains since we needed to listen to the music. I picked a song from a tango list that I had found and once we found a pretty good song, we danced in the park for at least 30 minutes straight! It was great! I have never danced Tango at a park with anyone. It was really a great and magical moment between us.

The weather was getting colder and I had then decided to change the scene. ‘How about we go back to my place, Luke and dance there? I have a good size of a living space.’

Luke agreed to move and off we went to catch the 118 bus to my flat. When we arrived at the flat, we both had a tea, talked about music and our passion to learn more Tango steps. We then logged on Youtube.com and found a great video for us to practice a new move at our Sunday class. We moved the furniture to make more space and started to practice over and over the new move with George able to lead forwards and backwards.

‘Are you looking at your feet?’, I said.’ Cause you know you are not suppose to be looking down.’ I gently slapped his bottom. Luke laughed. He seemed to have liked it. ‘Remember, you’re the man. Come on!’

Our evening kept going and going till 1:30am. I felt very close to him holding him very tightly, but something was missing. I just couldn’t pin it. It was getting late though, and I made him take the night bus back to his house. Luke didn’t know the neighborhood so I had to escort him to the bus stop.

We sat on the bench while Luke was getting nervous. ‘I wonder if there is a bus.’, Luke said. ‘If not, oh shit.’

‘Nah, there has to be a bus. In fact, we are five minutes early, so don’t worry. If not, oh man, I’m going to kill somebody’.

Luke raised his eyebrows.’What? You are going to kill somebody!?

Again, slang expressions must not be used with someone non-native, however if you have the time to explain to them, do it. ‘I’m not going to kill somebody. It’s a slang expression for I’m going to be very upset and might tell someone off, Luke.  But don’t worry, I won’t kill anyone’

Luke laughed, ‘OH I get it. Ok. But yeah, I hope this bus comes soon.’

The bus came 4 minute late from the due time and Luke jumped on the bus and left. I was very glad to do something amazing that evening with someone, especially with a good man. As I walked home, I started to wonder if I should had offered him to stay, but I felt it wasn’t right. After all, it was the third time seeing him in five days.