The Hot One

After a tough, tough Friday at work in New York City -- two baby showers, one business update seminar, and four champagnes later -- I managed to escape the office, slightly tipsy, and extremely happy, to meet my friend at the Time Warner Center. We were heading uptown to visit a retail store I had helped build out. Randomly enough, I ran into this banker fellow whom I met at an MBA Tour event last summer, and he decided to join me and my friend on our little retail adventure. The fellow and my friend are both MBA applicants for the class of 2009, and they were both eager to hear my insights and advice regarding the application process. When we arrived at the store, we were greeted by the manager, recognizing me as her finance counterpart at corporate. She gave me a store tour while my friends shopped. She then gave glasses of wine to me and my friends while we finalized our purchases. After the store, the fellow went on his way and my girlfriend and I headed over to the east side to meet some other girls for dinner at Yuva (58th btw 2nd and 3rd).

Yuva was fantastic: the food was contemporary, the drinks innovative, and the service excellent. However, the conversation soon edged from blase to spicy (probably to match the food). Of course everyone wanted to know where the youngin' was (at work still, so he couldn't make it to dinner... but he did managed to track me down later in the evening for a late night rendezvous --- no more details can be revealed!). Then started the griping of how hard it is to find someone to date long term in a city like New York. And then, someone announced that they don't want to date guys that are too hot. They want to be the ''hot one'' in a relationship.

I can't deny that I have been one of those girls that will lean over to her friends and say something like ''What is she thinking? He's so not cute enough for her!'' or vice versa. And what's more, I can 100% relate to what my friend said. When I was younger, I think I did sometimes go after guys who I knew were not as good looking as me, mostly because I was insecure that the guys that I thought were ''gorgeous'' wouldn't find me to be as gorgeous. And, perhaps attributable to being a late bloomer (yes, that's right ... MBA Cutie was indeed a late bloomer), this weird thing started happening. I began getting approached by guys who I thought were too gorgeous for me! And what's more, they even seemed nervous sometimes, worried that I would turn them down. I don't feel the same anymore. I'm not saying that I only date gorgeous guys, because that simply isn't the case. However, I do think it is important to me that I'm attracted to whom I date, but whether or not that puts them in the gorgeous category I can't say. There was a time when being the ''hot one'' in a relationship was important to me. But now, I think we can both be the hot ones. At least to each other.