The plumber and other stories.....

It was yesterday evening 

I was at home

Watching tv

Minding my own business

When my phone pinged a text

I opened it think it might be my friend who I had texted shortly before

I opened my messages 

And saw a number I didn't recognise 

With three simple words

How you Ruby?

My mind went blank for a moment 

As I tried to process the number 

And the words 

I ran through the possibilities in my hand 

My first thought was that it was The Boy

It could be 

He is prone to random texts out of the blue 

I wondered then if it was someone from the meetings 

But the other possibility 

Was that it was the plumber 

After about 15 minutes

I finally worked up the courage to text back

I simply said

Hey, who is this?

I went back to watching my show 

I didn't get my hopes up

Or have any expectations

In reality it could have been anyone

But still

There was still a little piece of me that hoped it was him 

The next few minutes dragged on forever 

I kept checking my phone

Looking for a reply

A clue to who this mystery person was

Finally 

After about ten minutes

My phone pinged again

Same number 

With the words 

'His name' I got your number off your neighbour, you Ruby?

OMG it was him!

It was The Plumber!

Holy shit!

I legged it in to the kitchen 

Where my mum and sister were

They demanded that I read out all the texts so far

Which I did

My sister told me to play it cool

Which I think was good advice

So I sat down to reply

And this is what I wrote

Oh hey, yea this is Ruby, my neighbour told me that she gave you my number, how you?

I tried to be casual but interested

Not too try hard but friendly 

And waited for a reply 

It came a few minutes later 

I'm good, I'll talk to you tomorrow 

I was a bit confused at this 

But decided not to text back 

So the ball is now in his court

As my sister says 

I'll let him take the lead

But seriously people 

I have no idea what I am doing 

This is unchartered territory for me 

I haven't had a boyfriend in years

In a whole decade

I have no idea of the way it works now

And I'm not in to playing games 

I'm not into messing with people's heads

I like people to be honest

And straight forwards

And I try to be too

So what happens now?

That's what I want to know 

I'm taking it from his last text that he is going to contact me today

Probably this evening 

As he will be working during the day 

But honestly 

My self esteem and confidence is not the best at the moment 

And heck

If I don't like or love myself

How can I expect any one else to

I kept saying to my Mum and sister

That when he sees me up close 

He'll soon lose interest

And he'll see what a loser I really am

My sisters advice Is good 

And she knows because she is alwAys dating someone 

She tells me to just be myself 

Maybe go for coffee

See if we like each other 

And take it from there

So that's what I will do 

But if you have any other advice 

Or words of wisdom 

I would really appreciate it

If we were lonely hearts 

It would probably read something like this...

Him: Tall, dark, hard worker, good with pipes

Her: Blonde, shy, GSOH, seeks man that must love dogs

Help!!!