I enjoyed writing this one. This is about someone I met on my travels and we spent only a short amount of time together. I like to think we made the most of it.
There's one bar in Kathmandu that's my go-to, Blackbird. Lara just walked in one evening and I'm pretty sure my eyes followed her till she sat down. I told my friend and the bar owner, Santi, that I was going to find a way to talk to her. As luck had it, he ended up chatting to someone from her table a while later so I joined. I don't know wtf I said but Lara and I soon got talking from across the table. It was pretty loud so I obviously volunteered to sit next to her. Such a gentleman. Obviously for her sake. 👼🏽
I actually don't know how long we spoke for. I just know for someone who piqued my interest because of how pretty I thought she looked, I was surprised at our depth of conversation. We chatted about our university experiences in the UK, her trek the next day, and our career moves. When she was leaving with her hostel group, they realized they didn't have Nepalese cash to pay the tab so - me being me - offered to pay the group's tab. It was around 40 euros ($45), which is not an insignificant amount of money for me and a fair bit in Nepal. She offered to pay me back the next day. Santi and the bartenders who knew me didn't buy her story and tried to talk me out of covering their tab. For whatever reason, I thought I could trust this girl who I just met maybe for an hour. I paid for it and they left.
The bartenders thought I was the biggest idiot who fell for this gal and believed she'd keep her word. When you think about it, it makes sense. There was an ATM around the corner. She was a pretty gal who probably has had countless guys (and probably gals) buy her drinks. They gave me a shot on the house to toast my naivety. Or stupidity, whichever way you look at it. I thought they were wrong. There was something about this girl who told me about her spending summers in Slovenia and how she grew up as the only non-religious kid in her school in Rome. The bartenders thought I was crazy. I was the butt of a few more jokes that night.
But guess what? Despite the jokes, that pretty white gal came through and paid me the next day. She even messaged me when she came from the trek (the same one I did a few weeks earlier) and we hung out.