My trips back to New York often mirror my lifestyle when I lived there, non stop, on the go, hectic and fun!

Having just departed from my most recent visit, the idea for this article came to me as a no brainer.  While drunkenly reminiscing with a group of friends of one of my best nights out in the city, or shall I say afternoons to nights in New York City.

Perhaps my friends efforts at trying to strategically start conversations with the cute, single guys in the room, while quite obviously stepping away at just the time that I joined in, or their caring ways of nagging me for not paying more attention to guys who were “so into me” that night, spurred my mind to wander back to this one, Bryan (yes that’s actually his real name,) “The One That Got Away.”

With the most interesting guy met this time around being the crazy bartender at Walter Foods in Williamsburg, and even the rarity of not one exchange of numbers   throughout the week, I was relatively unphased by this slight lull.  Honestly, I think my friends took more note of it than myself.  I mean really, do I have to be on my game when trying to catch up with close friends, or divert my attention from good conversation to someone who I deem no greater than mediocre, some cute player type just wanting to hook up?  No Way!!!

In an effort to somewhat appease my friends and of course, entertain myself, I’ve decided to conduct a social experiment of sorts.   Years have passed since I’ve organized one of these on such a grand scale, my last being in early 2002, appropriately while living in New York and creating a fake Match.com profile, having every physical and personality trait that I deemed non desirable, yet, oddly there were many who desired this woman.

This time around, there will be no softly letting down hopeful guys who have begun to exchange messages with this potential but non-existent online match, as Operation “The One That GotAway” is the real deal.  Not so fast though…before you start helping me search for Bryan, you have to know the story of one of my best days in New York City…

So it all happened this bright sunny day in late August of 2010.  My great friend Adriana and I embarked across the river into Long Island City, Queens, for my first outing into this relatively unknown land.   First there was trendy boutique shopping, followed by the true reason we were heading to this borough, the MoMA PS1 Museum’s summer Saturday Warm Up.

This event was as eclectic as it was fabulous, with the most amazing crowd of people packed in the sculpture garden mingling, dancing and drinking while the entertainment ranged from live Indie Pop acts to DJ acts spinning old skool hip hop and house.  As the crowd got drunker, more people ended up jumping into the inflatable kiddie pools, which I managed to stay dry, but I do admit to forgetting the contents of my whole conversation with Aziz Ansari.  Honestly, I can’t even remember if he was funny in person, but am pretty sure he was, as he was hanging out with a guy dressed as a lit up moon man.

The Rooftop Bar and Pool Deck at The Empire Hotel

As the sun went down and our sobriety slowly started to regain, we decided to grab dinner at Tournesol, a great French bistro in the neighborhood, where all of the waiters are authentic…aka French and flirtatious with the ladies and the food is excellent.

On our way, we needed to stop off at a bodega for some reason…too intoxicated to remember why of course, but right around the corner from the restaurant, so needless to say it must have been Karma.

While exiting, we bumped into a tall, handsome resident of Long Island City, with curly dark hair, a friendly smile and interesting eyes.  He stood on the stoop of the bodega and chatted with us for what seemed to be a half an hour, sharing neighborhood tips, asking where we’d be going out later and sharing where he’d be, even jokingly referring to himself as the “Ambassador of the Neighborhood.”  At times when he looked away, Adriana shot me over the look as to say “Do it, invite him to join us,” and I wanted to, really…but I didn’t.

Well, the conversation eventually ended, we went on our way to dinner at Tournesol enjoyed the wine, food and flirtatious waiters.  Passing by the bar where we thought we recalled he was heading, I glanced in and it was pretty empty, so we stuck with the original plan and hit up my favorite summertime nightspot, the Rooftop Bar and Lounge at The Empire Hotel.  Throughout all of the dancing and good looking distractions, there was one topic that kept resurfacing in our conversations, Bryan, and how I should have said something, acted more interested, etc…

Always being a believer that if a guy is interested, he’ll make the move, I justified my relative nonchalance, but deep down wished I had said something as well.  After all, as I was falling asleep, if I’m being honest, passing out, that night, the only thing that could have made that day better would have been a kiss from Bryan.