Shared love of poetry brings romance
Tallulah wasn’t sure if Gabby would be into more than a friendship
Tallulah is a 22-year-old student who lives downtown. She says, “When I go out, I tend to go for a mostly natural look with my makeup. I really love red lipstick, though, so I always wear it on a first date.” Tallulah loves to read and write poetry, and says, “My friends and I spend a lot of time on Instagram, and enjoy trying new places we see on there.” Tallulah says, “I’m known as the “mom” of my friend group. Everyone comes to me for advice because they know I’ll tell the truth, even if it hurts their feelings.”
I met Gabby in a poetry club. We became friends because I mentioned something about a band I like, and she happened to like them, too. We wound up talking a lot after that. She always made an effort to tell me she liked my poetry, and I could tell she was being genuine about it. She also understood all my terrible, morbid jokes. I like that I don’t have to censor myself around her. She started sending me things that reminded her of me. I was like “Oh my gosh, she’s thinking of me when I’m not around” and I realized I’d been doing the same.
I started to fall for her about a month into our friendship. I didn’t even know if she was into girls. Sometimes she would say things where it seemed like she was, but I was scared that I was just imagining things. We had lots of deep talks about sexuality and how coming to terms with it is really difficult. Because she was still questioning, I didn’t want to put any pressure on her, so that’s part of what held me back from telling her I liked her.
As I got to know her more, my feelings grew. I figured I would never say anything about it, and nothing would ever happen. Gabby knew about the “mystery girl” I had mentioned having a crush on, and one day she was teasing me and I just told her it was her. Apparently, she’d known for a while. She said she felt the same way about me.
We went on our first date about a week later. We were talking, and I was like “Hey, so we should actually go somewhere and do something.” I was in charge of deciding what to do.
I spent a long time planning my outfit, hair and makeup. Even though Gabby has seen me drag myself to class in the morning with a fever, I still felt the need to impress her. While I was getting ready, I felt almost sick, in a good way.
I chose Allan Gardens for our date because I wanted the opportunity to just walk around and talk to her. I also wanted pictures for Instagram. However, we got there right as it was closing.
I was freaking out, but Gabby saved the day by suggesting that we go to this exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre I had told her about, called the “Museum of Broken Relationships.” It’s a collection of items people have donated that are reminders of their past relationships. I had actually considered taking her there on the date, but I thought it was a bit grim. I appreciated that she was so flexible.
On our way there, I started to push the existing boundary by saying small, flirty things. Gabby responded well, and after that our conversation became a lot more natural. There were some moments where we were walking side by side and I wanted to hold her hand, but I was too nervous to actually do it.
We loved the exhibit. We had a great time reading about other people’s relationships. A lot of them ended in somebody cheating. We promised not to do that to each other.
After the exhibit, we decided to go to Koreatown, where I showed her all my favourite shops. In one of them, they were playing a song that we both like, and she started dancing along. Watching her, in the back of my mind, I was like “Oh my God, I’m probably going to fall in love with her.”
At one point, I started coughing like mad, like I was choking on air or something. Gabby asked me politely not to die on our date, which made me laugh and cough even more.
I had so much fun with her. It was definitely the best date I’ve ever been on.
Tallulah rates her date (out of 10): 10