This one is for the girls

So there’s this big debate on whether or not girls and guys can be JUST friends. I believe they can because I’ve done it, I have so many guy friends who are strictly just friends because they themselves have girlfriends or I had a boyfriend, etc. Then there are those other sorts of people who think they can be friends but also sleep together. What a great arrangement, everything will turn out fine. Wrong.

That’s a topic for another time.

I don’t do advice columns, especially relationship advice. Nobody should be taking that from me considering my track record. So, any general advice you may pick up along the way is once again, merely coincidence.

The other night I went out with a guy friend of mine. We have been on-and-off friends since freshman year of college but since we are both back in Cleveland for good right now we have been hanging out more. As JUST friends. Because as he says “meeting new people is hard”.

This summer we have a goal to divide and conquer Cleveland so we can see and do as many things as possible. At the beginning of the night I told him I’m not making any decisions he can pick where we go and what we do. Before all my feminist friends get upset that I let a man make decisions for me, it has nothing to do with power and everything to do with the fact that I feel like I know nothing about Cleveland. As soon as I was old enough to really explore Cleveland I moved straight to Cincinnati. End rant.

He ended up deciding on the Cultural Gardens and going down to the water for a sunset because when you live on a lake sunsets are always beautiful and extremely necessary to any summer day.

At the Cultural Gardens we looked at all the important ones, and by important I mean they were all big and right next to each other so we didn’t have to walk far. He kept saying to me “Which one do you want to see next? What do you want to do next?” and then he would quickly correct himself and say “Oh, right sorry you aren’t making decisions tonight. Follow me.” Observe the way he remembers things about you.

At one of our stops there was a kid having trouble with his bike and my friend didn’t even think twice about it, he went right on over and helped him as best he could. Watch the way he treats other people.

To end our night we headed to one of the beach clubs on the lake down by where his sister lives. As we are getting out of the car he says “Are you ready?”
Of course I’m ready to see my hundredth sunset of the summer.

He walks to the trunk of his car, opens it, and inside is a cooler that he opens with a bottle of champagne in it. Sure, it was $6 champagne but that’s a dollar more than I’d spend on it. So, we had a glass of champagne, watched the sunset with his family, and we each went around and played a song that described our day. Notice the way he pays attention to detail.

To wrap this up, all I’m trying to get across is that I don’t care if you are just friends or if you are more than friends, it doesn’t matter. You deserve to be treated like you are important.

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