The Hot American Boy

My brother is two years younger than me. The funny thing is that all my life my mother told me that I was lucky to have a younger brother since someday I would want to date his friends. I had a hard time understanding this because my brother and his friends and their skateboards and their snowboards seemed so young to me and so not cool. I was like popular you know? Besides, it was high school and your could easily become a social outcast by doing something much less incriminating than dating a YOUNGER GUY. Back then younger men just weren't cool - it was all about the older boys with cars... and beers. It wasn't until I met the Hot American Boy that I realized my mother might have been on to something.*

I was home from Stockholm for my parent's annual Fourth of July pool party when in walks an extremely hot shirtless guy - think Abercrombie and Fitch model. My jaw drops and I stutter to my brother - WHO IS THAT? He looks at me as if I'm crazy and tells me that hot American Boy is his friend from high school who was 4 years younger than me... I was like: Boy has grown up! And he sure does look fine without his shirt on! Wow.

I won't go into the details of that Fourth of July night - mostly since large quantities of alcohol = memory gaps which make the night impossible to piece the night together coherently. But I will say that it started with a keg party at the pool (where else do Fourth of July parties start), followed by a karaoke battle, at some point there was a broken window and a drunken run (in high heels to say the least) from the police, a loud stumble home, an almost missed flight, a strong scolding from my mother that went something like "you and your brother are NEVER allowed to hang out again" and somewhere in the midst of this drunken chaos, I managed to steal a kiss from and cement a crush on the Hot American Boy.

Fast forward 5 years to Christmas time at home and a trip to Boston where my brother decides we are going to stay with the Hot American Boy who has apparently just broken up with his girlfriend (coincidence - or destiny....). And in a moment of further coincidence - or destiny - The American Boy tells me he is thinking about doing a trip to Europe. And of course being the nice person that I am, I offer him a place to stay in London. He says "It is very likely that I will take you up on that offer." Well, I've surely heard that one (ahem - all you friends who keep telling me that someday you are going to visit and then never ever follow through) so I don't read too much into and I try not to fantasize about it - too much....

But what do you know? He actually follows through and books his flight to London. He Originally plans to come with 2 other boys who mysteriously drop out of the trip at the last minute. Ok. Awkward? Weird? Good? Destiny? I don't know. But the Hot American boy is coming to hang with me in London!

*I feel that I must point out that my Mother is always right. Actually she has been wrong exactly once and it was a big wrong. But I will save that story for another day. The problem is that she is not always right at the right time. With this prediction she was about a decade off. It took me awhile to realize my inner Cougar but my Mother was right as usual and I'm much more inclined to date younger men than older ones these days.