A very nice woman at the visitor’s information booth directs me to a low priced hotel. Not exactly a five star hotel but it is priced within my budget. I need to spend as little as possible if I want my European adventure to last long.

For dinner I find a very exotic place to eat; a McDonalds hamburger restaurant. I laugh and am disappointed in myself.
I flew to Europe to experience new things and here I am eating a Big Mac at a McDonalds restaurant in London!
So much for my big adventure but I do find comfort in the restaurant’s all too familiar surroundings It helps overcome my feeling a bit out of place. A stranger in a new country with no one I know.
Well I take that back; I do know Matt.

I could call him and maybe he would be willing to take me sight-seeing tomorrow.
I would feel less like a stranger if I knew something about London.
But I am not sure I want to call him. He is different than other men I have known before.
He keeps talking about restraints and restraints setting me free. I am not traveling through Europe to find constraints. I flew here to find new freedoms and experience exciting new worlds.

The more I look around the restaurant the more I see people gathering with their friends and the lonelier I feel.
I decide I am going to call Matt. I am lonely and I need a friend, any friend.
But I still can’t help but have “strange” feelings about him. Well if he turns out to be someone I don’t like I can tell him good-bye.
I’ve told several men good-bye in my lifetime so getting rid of another man is no concern to me.

When I get back to the hotel I dig his card out of the trash-can. I really had no intention of calling him.
I dial the number on the card and Matt picks up the phone on the very first ring.
Was he expecting me to call? I almost hang-up the phone. There is just something about him that scares and intrigues me.
He is strikingly handsome and very appealing. If I had met him at a party back home I know I would have made a pass at him. Me and every other woman at the party would be making a passes at him.
“Hi it’s me Erin from the plane. Do you remember me?” what a silly question; I know he will remember me, we just got off of the plane four hours ago.
“I remember you said you would be glad to show me the sights of London. I am feeling alone and out of place. I could really use a friend here. Would you be willing to spend a day with me?”

He replies “of course, all part of the service.”
We agree to meet the next morning for breakfast and then a day of sight-seeing.
“Wait, I can’t go tomorrow. I am suffering horribly from jet-lag. I desperately need to spend a day sleeping. Can we meet the following morning?”
“Of course he says and he tells me where he will meet me and at what time to be there.
I think it a little pushy that he “tells” me where and when to meet him without asking me, but I decide he must be a type A personality used to getting his way.

Oh well, as I said I can always tell him good-bye. He is only a friend and not my master…