This is going to be a massively long but I'm capturing this all here more for my sake than yours.
chapter 1 - the setup
I left Cincinnati on Sunday the 23rd for a 12 day work trip to do consumer research in Europe on one of my projects.
I'm part of a global team on this project and there were 4 of us in total coming from the US - 2 other guys that I'm on pretty much every project with (lets call them... Ryan and Steve) and Steve's boss, a cute (happily married) girl who was born and raised in Spain and spent several years living in Puerto Rico before moving to Cincinnati 5 or so years ago. We were meeting up with the European based part of our team and then doing research for a week in London and a couple days the next week in Madrid.
We flew into London, somehow all on different flights that got in within an hour of each other and had planned to meet up at the little cafe in the terminal at Heathrow and make our way to the hotel. Right off the bat, we got a curve ball... Steve, Ryan and I all made it in and found each other, but Steve's boss had bad weather at her connection through Dublin and was going to be delayed ~4 hours. So we did what any group of respectable guys would do to a female coworker traveling alone, we ditched her and left her to find her own way - basically setting the trend for the whole trip where the three of us would go off and do our own thing. After sightseeing for a bit and taking a little nap (not together), we finally connected with Steve's boss for a nice little dinner.
chapter 2 - a slow start
Here's where the fun began, sorta...after dinner, we grabbed a nightcap at a pub near our hotel and Steve's boss mentions that she's been texting with GreekChick and that she and a couple of the other Europeans are going to join us. Steve's boss starts teasing me a little, the way only a Spanish-Puerto Rican woman could with a hint of playfulness and mischief such that I don't know if she's just being a ##### or if it's a case where i would have a chance. ####, at this point I'm jet lagged, I've had about a bottle of wine and several beers. My spidey sense isn't exactly up to par. I've never met any of these people because they are all in marketing and other functions like that and I'm in a little bit more of a technical role, but if she says this girl is cute, game on.
The European guys show up, but no signs of GreekChick. Wtf?? Steve's boss can tell that I'm feeling like I've been duped so she texts GreekChick for a bit and then mentions that GreekChick will be on her way but isn't really sure where the place is (there are a couple pubs with similar names around there). I do the chivalrous thing and volunteer to wait outside to find her, Ryan decides to join me - probably a good thing so I don't look like a creeper the first time I meet her. After what was probably 5 minutes but felt like 15, GreekChick shows up, grateful that we found her, amazed that we knew what he looked like since we had never met her before. I mumble something about us just looking for any girl that looks Greek, covering up the fact that I had looked her up on Facebook earlier in the evening when Steve's boss was telling me about her
So now most of the group is together, the Americans drunk and jet lagged, the Europeans sober, likely a bit annoyed, but cordial and chatty - finally getting a chance to talk face to face with people they've been in meetings with for months. I keep angling to get in on the conversation with Steve's boss and GreekChick, but can't find the right opening so end up getting relegated to talking with the group of guys. After a couple drinks, we call it a night and walk back to the hotel.
chapter 3 - things are looking up
The next day at research, we are broken into small teams of 3 people... Ryan was in charge of the groups and was nice enough to put me with GreekChick and another guy. By a convenient stroke of luck, the other guy canceled and my group was down to just the two of us!
I was on top of my game, witty, funny, charming... It was all clicking. We did a focus group with four consumers (all women) and the consumers were playfully teasing me and laughing much of the time. Probably one of the best groups I've ever led. A couple of the girls were even flirting with me. I'm riding high - GreekChick has to be impressed with me at this point, right?
The next step was to go into a different consumer's home and have a discussion there. One of the session moderators from the afternoon joins us for this bit and the three of us cram into the back seat of a cab, GreekChick in the middle both to and from the discussion. This is perfect! We're chatting on the ride as we get stuck in rush hour traffic on both sides of the discussion and our conversation in the cab is flowing easily. GreekChick even mentions at one point that she thinks I'm funny. I'm.so.in. This is going to be an awesome week+ of research!
chapter 4 - mixed signals
At one point on the ride back to the hotel, we go around a corner a little fast, hard enough that it shifts us a little but not to the point that we all squish each other in on one side. I make use of this opening to "accidentally" brush my hand against the side of her leg and her hand. A junior high-level move for sure, but im not going to make some big move with the moderator right there too. As soon as i make contact, she instantly shifts away. ####! Did I misread the signals? Are European girls just different about this sort of stuff? Could she have been flirting, but with no intention of having any interest in me
hmm... better back off for now and keep trying to read things, but don't push too hard and make for an awkward rest of the trip. I'll have to keep working with this girl and if I make advances that she doesn't want, it's gonna be weird.
We make it back to the hotel and the whole team meets in the lobby a little while later to go to dinner together. Somehow, I always end up being the "party planner" in these sorts of situations and I have reservations for us at a really nice restaurant a mile or two away. Close enough to walk if you wanted to, but not really ideal for our large group. I figured, hey, we're in London, might as well take the Tube - easy and convenient and probably quicker than getting 2-3 taxis for the whole group. We have a station a couple blocks from our hotel and with one line change could end up right near the restaurant. Well, on the walk to our Tube stop, Steve's boss starts complaining that she just wants to take a taxi and doesn't want to have to deal with getting tickets for the underground. Ugh...ok. She was supposed to be my ally and now she's basically telling the whole group that my idea was a dumb one. If that's not bad enough, Ryan still wants to take the Tube, so I join him while the others take taxis. Yeah...we were wrong. Ryan and I showed up at the restaurant 5-10 minutes after them, sweaty and breathing heavily. We had skipped the line change on the Tube in hopes of trying to save some time. The station we got off from was a half mile from the restaurant and we ran most of the way...oops. Things are heading the wrong direction! The only saving grace was that we got to avoid the awkwardness of choosing where to sit. It just so happened that the last available seat for me was right next to GreekChick. In retrospect I wonder if this was planned or coincidence. Not much happened over dinner, but everyone was raving about the place, so that was a nice little bit of redemption.
chapter 5 - the game
I'm not usually one to really play the game. I'm not into "negging" girls to try to make them want me more or anything like that. I am who I am and if that isn't intriguing enough, then that's fine. I'm sure I've missed out on some fun opportunities along the way as a result, but I'd say I'm still doing ok for myself. That said, this was a different experience and a different challenge, so I changed things up a bit. It just so happens that we had another single girl that had just come on the team join us at research the next day. Opportunity strikes! This new girl is ok and all that and Steve is telling me I should make a move on her and not GreekChick, but to me, the new girl was kinda plain and not as exciting. GreekChick was cuter to me and had a big, fun, high energy personality. I basically stopped flirting with GreekChick for the couple days while new girl was there and instead chatted with her a bit. I didn't really get much of a response either way out of doing that, so not sure how it contributed to the end results. At this point I was getting pretty worn out after having put in several 18+ hour days of work during the week, so I'm sure I wasn't as affable as I normally am. In my head, things are done here, I made a little effort, it didn't work out, oh well.
chapter 6 - the number
Ryan, Steve and I were catching a train from London to spend the weekend in Paris - they had never been and we figured it would be good to see another city while we were over here. Plus, it's sorta on the way from London to Madrid, so we could rationalize expensing it. All of the Europeans were returning back to where they live (various spots) - most were getting in to Madrid on Monday, but a couple were joining on Sunday. Steve's boss is from Madrid and was planning on taking folks out on Sunday night for a nice dinner to show off her city. Somehow, I ended up being the social coordinator for this and the folks from the team that were interested in joining gave me their numbers, including GreekChick. I did what I would do with any girl from back home that gives me her number - I instantly sent her a text saying hey, it's me, now you have my number too. She writes back later telling me to enjoy Paris and see you in Madrid. Excellent, I've got her number, but I'm just assuming its more for work purposes at this point.
chapter 7 - fully drunk
Paris was great as it always is. Hands down my favorite city in the world, got to meet up with a really good friend while I was there and just didn't have nearly enough time to see or do 1% of what I wanted to while I was there... But that's not what this story is about, is it?
While I'm in Paris, I get a text from GreekChick saying she will get to the hotel in Madrid around 10p on Sunday and will we still be around or will she miss out and what time will the team meet in the lobby the next morning. I text her back that I'm sure we'll be around, so I'll keep her posted on our whereabouts. That was both a good idea and a bad idea.
We got into Madrid in the early afternoon and Steve's boss said she wouldn't make it til Monday morning because she was having some family issues (found out through her aunt that her well-off father is marrying a prostitute!). She gives us recommendations on what to do/where to go. Sunday evening, after some tapas and a bottle of wine to myself, i text GreekChick letting her know that we are out and a little drunk, so let me know when she gets in. It was 5:30 in the afternoon. My text was half in Spanish, half in English. I don't speak Spanish. And she had told me in her last text that she wasn't getting in til 10p...smooth.
I had been putting in football bets while we are out and drained 40% of my battery in under an hour. I was around 5% battery left at 9:30p when I get a text from GreekChick "On my way, are you fully drunk or can you wait for me?!" oh crap, there's no way I'm going to have enough battery left to text her the address and have it last until she can find us, so I give Ryan her number and he works thing out. In the meantime, I've had 3 beers and 2 more glasses of wine. I'm fully drunk.
chapter 8 - no hablo ingles
Ryan, Steve and I are almost 'put me to bed' drunk by the time she shows up a little after 10. She looks fine in a sexy little dress showing nice cleavage and well toned legs. She had been in jeans the whole week and while she looked good then, this was a whole different look. I think we made the right decision to stay out. We end up grabbing a table at a corner cafe in a busy part of town with tons of people out and enjoying life and beer with equal vigor. At least we aren't the only drunk ones! No one comes to wait on us, even after a standard european time to wait, so I take orders for the table and go to the bar inside - 3 beers for the guys and a tequila for GreekChick, nice. As I'm carrying the beers out, a bouncer guy makes a comment about no glass allowed outside. I don't speak Spanish but can usually figure out context and in situations like this. I tried to pretend that I didn't understand what he said, but I don't think my reply of "no hablo ingles" was as convincing to him as I had intended
oops. He made me pour the beer from the bottles into glasses, but I was allowed to take three glasses of beer and a glass shot of tequila outside. No hablo ingles indeed. fortunately our table was far enough away that no one from my group heard my gaffe as I'm sure I wouldn't live that down. Words are hard.
The rest of the night gets a bit fuzzy for me, but there are some details I remember.
Like a good proper European, GreekChick smokes. She rolls her own cigarettes on the fly each time, filter in her mouth as she loads the tobacco into the paper and then rolls it. Quite impressive really. At this point in the night, I'm drunk enough that a cigarette sounds like a good idea. Part of me is trying to show off to her that just because I'm American doesn't mean that I can't smoke/I look down on her for it. She hands me a freshly rolled cigarette and offers to light it for me. I'm a man! I can't have a woman light my cigarette! So I take the lighter from her and promptly try to spark a flame by turning the thumb wheel the wrong direction, into the flame. 4 times in a row before Steve starts laughing at me. Smooth. I laugh it off, rightfully blame the beer and enjoy myself as I ingest another toxin to challenge my body with.
On the cab ride home, the idea of a nightcap in the hotel came up, but we ultimately decided against it. I got back up to my room, my phone had been dead for almost 2 hours, so I plugged it in to charge. As soon as I got enough power for it to turn on, I saw that one of the other team members had tried to message me to meet up, but since my phone was dead, they were stuck at the hotel instead. Doh! I also determine that I should text her to see if she's changed her mind on the nightcap. My exact text was "Not fully drink if you want to grab a nightcap in the cafe" yeah, for some reason she chose to just ignore that one.
chapter 9 - damage control
I woke up to my alarm going off for the 3rd or 4th time and shake the cobwebs out of my head. Do the quick check - am I still drunk? Nope, don't think so; do I have a headache? You know, not really; do I have the shakes like I've been drinking all day yesterday? Absolutely... Michael J Fox wonders why I'm shaking so much. Ok, not too bad. I pop a couple aleve, drink some water and rush to get showered, shaved, teeth brushed in 5 minutes (usually takes me 15+ as I slowly wake up). I'm trying to pull off the whole 'oh I wasn't that drunk, I'm good to go today' look. In the process of shaving, I think I might have gashed a chunk of my chin off based on the amount of blood that was coming out. Smooth I am not. I search the hotel room for a tissue to help stop the bleeding. None. How do they not have tissues here? Crap. I resort to folding up a wad of toilet paper to help absorb the blood as I rush to get dressed and down to the lobby. I've got a bloody wad of toilet paper stuck to my chin as I'm throwing on a shirt that looks like I've had it balled up in my suitcase the last week. I put a sweater over that and do a quick check to make sure I didn't get any blood on my clothes. Nope, good to go. I go back into triage the bathroom, put some lotion on to try to see if that will help at least cover the gash up and make it look better. After a couple minutes, the bleeding has largely subsided and I rush downstairs, only 10 minutes late. Thankfully one of the Europeans was still up in his room, so I wasn't the last one. I'm not looking my best, but good enough.
The whole team is there and is asking about our night. One look at Ryan and everyone can tell that we had some fun. Fortunately I looked much better off than him, so he took the bulk of the jokes. I was trying to figure out how much of an ### I had been from looking at GreekChick, but couldn't get a read. My attempts to be smooth and see if I could pull something off with the nightcap had been ignored and she was just acting like nothing had happened. Not being cold to me, but not exactly being open either. I tried, I flamed out. It happens constantly to me and this was just another case of it. I won't really work all that closely with her going forward, so no biggie. I'm a little embarrassed but oh well. If I can just ignore her Monday and Tuesday then I can put it all behind me.
chapter 10 - cautiously optimistic
After work on Monday, the Americans went out to do a little shopping. After a week and a half of 2-3 hour dinners, we just wanted something simple so we could get back and not be wiped out for our last day of work on Tuesday. We did some clothes shopping for a bit and then one of the guys wanted to get some local art, having no real clue where to go, I turn to Yelp and have a couple suggestions near by. We're walking around, ducking in a couple galleries where everything was 10x what he wanted to pay and are starting to get hungry so find a neat little local tapas/dive bar. Perfect, just what we're looking for.
During dinner, GreekChick texts me to let me know that rest of the team is going out in an hour or so and it's a shame that I'm out shopping and not having dinner together because it's her last night. Wtf?? We had all assumed everyone was leaving on Wednesday like most of the US team (I'm staying til Thursday to enjoy the city one more day, but oddly have spent much of it typing this...). I think I posted the text here earlier, but she asked if I wanted to grab a drink later because she has something to give me. She tries to get me to join the group for a second dinner, but I decline. I don't know what to think at this point. The idea of meeting for a drink and her having something to give me has me excited, but then to say I should join the group for dinner softens it for me a bit. I'm assuming at this point that its a cultural thing and she's being nice but not flirting.
We get back to the hotel and they are in the lobby getting ready to head out. It's 9p and I'm tired having carried the hangover with me through most of the day - not feeling bad, but just not 100%. She invites me again, but i make some excuse and head up to my room. Steve happens to be nearby at this point, so she extends the invite for drinks later to him as well. Ok, this seals it for me. Europeans are just more flirty friendly and I have nothing to get worked up for here.
chapter 11 - anticipation
So even though i was spending the time trying to convince myself that I had no chance here, I can't get it out of my head that after flaming out on the nightcap invite the day before, if she's inviting me for a drink tonight, the door might still be a little open. I took to FBG for speculation and support and got just what I was looking for. Since I know they'll be gone for a while, I make some crockpot chicken and take a nap. First setting my alarm for 1 hour and then another half hour when I woke up in a fog. During the last half hour, anticipitation started to set in and I tossed and turned before finally deciding I wasnt going to be able to sleep anyway. I caught up on the GMTAN, straightened up my hotel room and just watched the clock tick.
chapter 12 - no, I'm not tired
Around 11:45 I get a message saying that they are just now leaving the restaurant and getting ready to head back to the hotel. She understands if it's late and I'm too tired/already asleep and want to skip out on the drink. I instantly text back "no worries! I'm up. Let me know when your ready for me" I'm sure the idating gurus would tell me that was a passive move and I messed this up, but as I said before, I'm not into games, I'm me. If I'm passive in my approach, oh well. That said, I intentionally tried to leave my text open ended and suggestive with the "when you're ready for me"
She got back to the hotel a half hour later - the bar in the lobby closed and everything dark and texted me "Made it back home. Where do you want to meet? The hotel lobby looks like a ghost town"
#### it, I'm going all in. "Your call - I don't know of any other place around here. You can swing my by room (210) if you want." A couple minutes pass and my heart is beating rapidly. Did I misread this? Misplay it? Is she going to tell the whole team I'm a creep?
"on my way!"
A knock on the door. My heart pounding through my chest. Ok, play it cool. Look around, place looks tidy enough, no big messes, check. I open the door and she has a little bag in her hand. Oh yeah, she has a little something for me. I wonder what it is. She comes in and we stand in the doorway and exchange pleasantries. She opens the bag and hands me a flask! Oh yeah! I had forgotten that I told her to look for one for me. She was staying on an extra day in London to do some shopping. I had told her to look for a nice pewter flask for me because I lost my good one when I got too drink one time and forgot where I put it down. That's too nice of her. We walk in a little more, me standing near my bed, her in the doorway between the entry and the bedroom area. She comments on how small my room is compared to hers - I considered asking her to show me, but figured I already had her in a hotel room, no reason to push it forward.
Up to this point, every time we had talked had been nice and easy. For some reason this time it was a bit more awkward on both of our parts. At this point I'm thinking that I have no chance - she not really giving me any go signs. She's probably just being nice and I'm being naive thinking she would be interested in me. We chat for a couple minutes about some work stuff and she has a question about something and oh, what do you know, despite the fact that some guy in Brussels is supposed to own that part, I actually have all the info she needs. And isn't it convenient, I have my laptop right here next to my bed. We sit down on the bed, I start my laptop up and talk her through the info. Ok, I've got her this far, but still no signs of this going anywhere. Wtf?? I can be pretty dense about this sort of stuff at times, but I'm completely thrown off here. I put the computer away and we talk a little about work. Finally I decide to push it and talk about how this is fun and I wish I had more cute Greek chicks on my projects. A little chuckle, but not much else. Hmm... I know! I've got a little minibar, so I offer her a drink. She hesitates a little and then accepts. We move to the other side of the bed (my room is seriously small, even for European hotel rooms) and pop open the fridge door. Ugh, limited options. Tequila is her drink of choice but of course they don't have that. I grab two airplane bottles of stoli and whip up a stoli and fanta for each of us.
She's in my hotel room, on my bed, drinking booze... There's no way I'm mixing these signals up. No chance. I don't care what culture you're from, this has to be a green light. This is gonna happen. We're on the bed with drinks in hand. I place mine down, but we're sitting facing each other, legs crossed, so theres some space in between us and there's no chance of me swooping in for a kiss without her detecting me on the approach. I decide I'm just going to flat out ask her if I can kiss her, I've got nothing to lose at this point. I think I caught her off guard a little because she stumbled a little on the reply...
chapter 13 - the lion's roar
"yes, but that's as far as things are going to go"
BINGO! I take the drink from her hand and place it on the desk, amused by the convenience of the small room now because I didn't even have to shift myself to reach to put it down. We kiss, a nice, passionate kiss, me fumbling my hands a bit since we're both still sitting facing each other at this point. Do I touch her arm? The back of head through her thick mane of wild Greek hair? I end up alternating a bit - perfectly awkward for a first kiss, but quite nice. Ok, so is that the end? Where will this go? She said a kiss was the limit. We sit and chat for a bit, open stances opening a bit over time as a kept going in for little kisses. It's getting late at this point and we are alternating between kissing, talking and her asking me if I'm sure I'm not tired. It's impossible for me to be tired at this point. I tell her that I don't care if I fall asleep at research tomorrow, I'm staying up.
After a while we were finally down on the bed and kissing. It was as though every kiss took things two steps forward then one step back. Two o clock, Three o clock, Four o clock, Five... Lying down on the bed, kissing and seeing where she'll let me take this. Slow but steady progress. Our bodies slowing moving closer and closer together. I'm being cautiously aggressive but making sure she's comfortable with each step forward. Kissing, bodies locked together. Kissing, grinding together. And then it was on
We were making out as I was grinding my leg between hers, not yet getting the permission to explore down there. Just some awesome, hot kissing as she starts to get more and more into it. Our faces pull away and she starts moaning, and then moaning louder and finally lets out noises that must have made anyone with a room near mine think that there was a lion roaming around the hotel. After she finished, we collapsed back on the bed and cuddled a bit and kept talking and learning more about each other. Then some more kissing, more grinding, this time with me on top of her and another orgasm for her. I'm feeling like a ####### stud here. I haven't even opened my bag of tricks and this girl has finished twice. I am a god!
More making out, I swiftly unfasten her bra to her astonishment - surprised that I could get it undone through the layers, let alone with such efficiency. She's a little perturbed by this, but also amused. This little dance of progress continued on for a couple hours before the clothes started shedding. It was getting a bit warm in the room and that seemed like the best way to deal with it.
I keep taking her to the finish line over and over again, finally getting the chance to expose more of my, um, arsenal. One of the times that she finished was probably the loudest sound I have ever heard a human being make. I was torn on how to muffle it and considered putting a pillow over her head, but figured she wouldn't be impressed so I tried to kiss her and take on her noises like the dude from the Green Mile did with cancer. It was only mildly helpful.
She ended up leaving my room at 6:45a. I lost track of how many times she finished, but I think the ratio was somewhere around 8:1 in her favor. I typically try to offer a favorable ratio for a lady, but I just tapped into something there like never before. It's like I had the answer key for an exam in front of me as I was taking it, the play book for the team I was playing against, Gray's Sports Almanac from Back to the Future II. So what did I do? What any rational guy would do, I instantly took to the GMTAN to announce my prowess before grabbing a quick nap and getting ready for the day.
chapter 14 - fin
With only about 10 more hours left together, all of which were occupied with the research team around us, there wasn't really time for a last goodbye. I did mention to her during our night together that I was going to grab her ### at research while no one was watching so she would know that I was thinking about our little rendezvous. I don't think she believed me, but when I did it, she let out a big smile after looking around to make sure no one had noticed. After research ended, the Europeans had some time to kill before catching their planes, so we all grabbed a celebratory drinks. One of the topics of conversation around the table was the highlight of the last week and a half. GreekChick and I exchanged a glance and a smile as we made up some other bull#### for our favorites. I got a nice big goodbye hug from her as they left for the airport, long enough for someone who was wondering and watching to be suspicious but not so long that would give anything away.
So for now, this is the end of the story of GreekChick. Could things have been different if I had made a move sooner? Possibly. But I'm not going to dwell on that. At one point when she was riding me, I pushed her back and told her I just wanted to soak this in so that I would even remember it when I was an old man. I'm sure some of the memories of the details will fade, but it is certainly a night I will never forget. If you ever see me with a stoli & fanta, you'll know what's on my mind
As for those asking for text pics - I just grabbed a pic off FB, so nothing like I've had to share in the past.
you. 
