For those of you that have been keeping up with my blog, you probably remember the three part series I did on my Tinder experiences last month. One of those was the  Tender Tinder Pt 2: Sam and the Fam! where I met one of my now good friends. As you could tell from the previous post, Sam is a great guy. Anyway, he was back in town with his granny (that’s what everyone calls her so I do too since I’m pretty much family now;) doing some work for the family business. So I went up yesterday to spend the day with him in St. Augustine. Even though I told him to do all of his work the prior days, he still had a good amount of projects left when I got there. This was not surprising and he wasn’t his best either since he had a broken rib from playing ice hockey last week. He likes to think he is hardcore. I won’t tell him otherwise.

When I got there around noon, no one was home. Perfect. I get no reception at their condo complex but luckily the wifi password had been saved so I was able to use it while I waited. The first thing granny asked when they got back was if I wanted something to eat. They know me so well. After eating, we went to Walmart. Worst place ever. Sam is also childish out in public. Not only did he spray me with some cheap perfume, he watched as I searched for an item when he already knew they didn’t have it. Not funny. He also got mad at me because I didn’t look nice. I told him I missed that memo. I didn’t apologize for my looks.

One of the projects I helped Sam with was transferring files from computers. Sometimes there are some miscommunication problems with Sam and granny. It’s a little awkward because I’m unsure what to do when this happens. I want Sam to know that I support him but I also don’t want granny to feel bad. Sam ended up saying that he needed to walk away for a minute and got up and left. Then granny started talking to me. Sam came back within a few minutes and explained what he was trying to relay calmly and they were able to work through it. What’s funny is I would have normally assumed that Sam had anger issues for the way he acted. But after dating some guys that don’t express any emotions, I actually kind of appreciated the way he handled the situation. He knew he was getting upset and to avoid saying something hurtful out of anger, he gathered himself for a moment and came back. I really admired the way he handled the situation. I think oftentimes we like to pretend we don’t have any problems so we suppress our feelings rather than dealing with them maturely.

The computer issues sent Sam and I to Staples to pick up an external hard drive. As we were leaving the complex it started to rain which made me yell at Sam to hurry up and unlock the doors as I was getting wet. He remained calm and would not unlock the doors until he was on my side to open the door for me. He is a real gentleman even when I’m a brat. Staples was fun and I left a ‘call me’ note at the cash register with Sam’s number. Hopefully the cashier dude will call him. Sam brings out my mature side.

Sam and I left around 5 to go downtown and we had a blast. It was the first night of their Night of Lights and it was gorgeous. Sam avoided going downtown earlier in the week just so we could see it together- awww. Traffic was crazy but we had fun because he had heated seats and we jammed out to Taylor Swift. My favorite was when he put on Ellie Goulding’s song, Lights haha. Our road rage tactics are pretty similar- not sure if that’s a good or bad thing lol. Here are some pictures of the lights:

So we had a list of things to check out that my friend’s told me about but as fate would have it, we defaulted to the restaurant we always go to- The Columbia. There were soooo many people downtown so we put our name on the list and since the wait was an hour- we walked around. One of the places on the list was French Fry Heaven and since I had gone to the fair the day before, I wanted to try the Festival fries- they were supposed to taste like funnel cake but yuck.- they were gross. Probably because they were made with sweet potato fries. Sam didn’t want anything from there, probably because of what the place looked like.

While the fries weren’t that good, we did have some good conversation at the place. A guy asked to share our table so we started talking with him. He was pretty cool and was from Jacksonville. He said he had walked on the UCF football team back in 1999. He asked questions about Sam and I too. After telling him about how I lived in Florida and Sam lived in Tennessee he kind of looked at us a little puzzled and started with, “Sooo, how do you guys-“ that’s when I cut him off and told him that Sam and I were just friends. Then he was like “Ohhh, so like friends with benefits?” and then Sam and I told him that there were no benefits- nope, no benefits- mostly cons. Sam said I should have told him that hanging out with me is the benefit. I agree. I really enjoy these awkward situations for some reason.

We walked around for a little bit after that. We saw some of the places my friends told me about- the Taco Shack, Hyppo Café, Waffle & Milkshake Bar, Kilwins. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach. Some of those places are on the list for next time. Some place on the street was selling apple cider and Sam wanted some but didn’t have any cash. I told him I’d get it. A nice older man was selling it and Sam said he wanted one and then I started reaching for my money- the guy asked Sam if it was for me. I told him that it wasn’t. That’s when the guy commented on the fact that I was paying. I could tell that Sam was embarrassed and I loved every minute of it. The guy told him what a great woman I was for taking such good care of him. Sam told him that I did take good care of him haha. Sam ended up paying for my dinner so I’d say that was an even trade, right? Our non-relationship makes me laugh at times.

Dinner was delicious. We got our usual pitcher of Sangria and chocolate cake. I sometimes need alcohol to deal with Sam and I think he needs it to deal with me. Our conversations are never normal. We talked so much about life, relationships, friends, and family. I like how we seem to balance serious talks with playfulness. He started with flinging the sugar packets at me and ended with him putting cake frosting on my wine glass. I’d like to say I was better but I wasn’t. Here are some pictures.

He said if I got cold I could borrow his sweater. Do you like how we are protecting his identity with the Sam label? That was his idea. Sam said I looked homely. After 12 hours I suppose I did, but I did look good earlier:

We talked. We walked around some more. Saw the Castillo De San Marcos & Old School House again. Went to see Meehan’s but I was driving back that night so I didn’t want to drink anymore. We watched Legally Blonde back at the condo. I ended up falling asleep as usual. Sam had covered me up and let me sleep while he did more work. I woke up about an hour later before driving home. He said I could stay but I didn’t think it would be appropriate even though we both knew nothing would happen. If I didn’t take that short nap I might have because I was super tired.

I really do like Sam. We talked about how weird it would be if we actually did date. We both agreed we couldn’t though. While we have a lot of fun together, we have different morals and values. In the long run, I think we’d get frustrated with each other and it would end badly. So for now, I don’t want to lose our friendship. I think sometimes we forget that people do enter our lives for different reasons. And it’s okay to like someone and not date them. One of the things I like most about Sam is how open and honest we are with each other. I’m free to be myself and not feel judged. I can be silly and it won’t matter. I don’t think either of us thought we’d meet someone decent on Tinder. He remained my friend even when I was dating someone else and that meant a lot to me. I didn’t know it until yesterday but the last time he was down, he had already budgeted out a ticket for me to go to Disney with him and his family again. I didn’t end up going to see him because I had a feeling he would pay for me and I didn’t feel right about it because I was seeing someone else. He is just really thoughtful and sweet. I’m excited to see what the future brings for both of our lives. 🙂