A friend of mine texted this past Wednesday afternoon asking if he could crash at my place for the 4th of July (Thursday) so he could come up and spend time with our friends over the holiday. He's in the process of moving back up to the greater Chicago area after living in St. Louis for work and is sub-leasing an apartment in between these two cities in the interim. Since he won't be in his current location for long he hasn't set down roots or made too much of a connection there. As such it makes more sense for him to stay with a friend up here when he wants to come out with us instead of doing a six hour round trip drive for any plans in Chicago.
When he comes up he usually stays with one or the other of two of our mutual friends. The friend he stays with most often is his ex-girlfriend and friend of mine who did the dumping in their relationship and with whom he has a lingering friendship with. Said ex-girlfriend though had a couple dates this weekend so she wasn't too keen on having her ex-boyfirend around for the weekend...hence the text to me.
Given that I have a two bedroom condo with room to spare I was happy to welcome him. I said yes with the understanding that I had tentative plans with a non-mutual friend the afternoon of the 4th of July but that I might be up for the fireworks with our mutual friends that evening. In addition I had to work on the morning of Friday the 5th, both of which he was okay with.
So he came mid-day on Thursday, July 4th. He even asked if he could join me at the afternoon plans I had with my childhood friend and her family. Of course that made for quite a topic of discussion amongst my friend, her siblings and her husband as I don't usually bring a "plus one" to events with their family even if said guest is just a friend. On the plus side, it gave me an out to leave this barbecue to join my mutual friends with my houseguest for fireworks elsewhere.
As we drove to meet up for the fireworks with our mutual friends we joked about the rumors that we potentially would be starting by showing up together. This was only compounded by the fact that the friend he usually stays with was insistent in finding out who he was staying with this weekend. We both agreed that, while we have nothing to hide nor anything to explain, we didn't want to make an issue of the fact that he was staying with me. We figured that less can be more and that sometimes it's better to not make an issue of a situation instead of fueling the fire of potential gossip. Especially with certain members of our group of friends who like to blow things out of proportion.
After meeting up with our friends for the fireworks we had a great time and our arriving at the same time was a non-issue. One person figured out that he was probably staying with me but didn't seem to care. That became good on Friday when he decided to extend his visit for another night to join this friend for an outdoor festival / concert which I joined them for that resulted in another night at my place for my houseguest.
Awaking on Saturday, July 6th, I had to head into work for the day and then had a family barbecue in the afternoon / evening. Certainly my houseguest was welcome to join me later on but I figured he might not want to spend the Saturday evening of a holiday weekend with my family instead of our friends. Thankfully he had a couple of options for plans up here in Chicago as well as the option to head back home. To that end I wasn't quite sure if I'd be coming home to company Saturday night or have my place to myself which made for a fun turning of the corner when I got to my sub-division to see his car on the street next to my driveway.
All went well for night three of his visit but made for fun this morning for day four of his visit. I was supposed to head up to spend time on the boat of two more of our mutual friends today on Lake Michigan. Not a big deal as my guest did need to head back home after four days "up north". But it was quite fun when our friend called early this morning to mention that she and her husband needed to take a raincheck on a day out on the lake and asked what I was up to. I just had to smile at my houseguest as I answered that I was relaxing on my couch without mentioning the cute guy at my side.
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