Toast’s dating history: Top five first kisses

Toast

My last date was a bit of a wash-out, so I started thinking about better dates I had been on.

You know the sort of dates that seem almost unreal because they are so magical.

I tried to think of five really good examples, but since four of them ended with a first kiss I thought I’d write that up instead.

So here are my top five first kisses, in no real order.

The Designer
She was the friend of someone I worked with. One of those painfully cool East London types who worked as a jewellery designer. She had a way of standing that was sort of childlike but also cocky at the same time. Her hair was dark and short, in a 1930s bob and she always had amazing accessories for every outfit. I fancied her instantly and spent months making sure we bumped into each other.

She asked me to a Great Gatsby themed party at her house. I spent ages working on my outfit and even bought some vintage champagne glasses to complete the look.

The party was excellent, a perfect summer’s day and a house full of jolly types drinking cocktails and discussing the book. The next day, we were lying on the lawn reading the Sunday papers and giggling while drinking frozen cocktails out of jam jars. 

I still wasn’t sure if we were ‘just friends’ at this point. She was reading me something from the fashion pages, I gulped twice, leaned in and kissed her. She kissed me back.

The Duchess
I’d just moved to London, I’d been there perhaps a week or two. We met through a silly website and agreed to go for a drink on Sloane Square (V. posh area of London). On our first date we went to a gig and then ended up in the VIP area of a nightclub in Mayfair. She was six-foot tall, with long dark hair and beautiful.

I ordered us some drinks, I can remember it was three vodka and cranberry juices. We talked for a little while. I struggled to keep up because she was just so attractive I found it hard to concentrate near her. I’d never met anyone like her before.

The music was loud, so we had to lean into each other to talk, this evolved into almost touching our faces together to talk into each other’s ears. I can remember my knees going a bit wobbly. My heart was racing and then we kissed.

The Travel writer
This started off by accident. We met over lunch to discuss work things a couple of times, and the lunches got increasingly more boozy and less about work. She was tiny with sparkly eyes and thick dark hair.

I invited her around for supper. Butternut squash soup with freshly made bread rolls. Roast duck with a selection of roasted vegetables (duck and veg from my mum’s farm) and strawberries.

I lived in an amazing flat at the time that was on the river. We took the strawberries and champagne out to the harbour. It was a little bit chilly but we’d both drunk enough to not really feel it.

The view across the Thames was amazing, it was a full moon. I loosened the lid off a bottle of champagne. Just as the cork popped off and bubbles went everywhere, we kissed.

Rock chick
We worked together for six months, and had lunch together almost every day. She was tall with dyed red hair, that sort of fake red that is more of a maroon. We danced our way around the party circuit and a quick drink after work would often turn into an evening of misadventure. Nothing even vaguely naughty happened even though the chemistry was amazing.

She had a boyfriend, but split up with him and then through chance we both happened to be in the same part of the country visiting friends. She came over for drinks and food with the friends she was visiting. I made pasta, from scratch with my brother.

After supper we walked to the forest and sat in a huge hammock. I’d suspected this might have happened and so arranged for a light post-supper picnic of champagne and chocolate truffles to be stashed behind a tree in a hamper.

She was terribly impressed, we fed each other chocolates and after months of lusting after each other we kissed.

The Blonde
This started off as friendship, so when she invited me to a party at the last-minute because her brother had bailed on her I thought nothing of it. It was fancy dress and I had a Spiderman costume. She was dressed as the lady from the Birds, she was tiny and blonde so completely rocked it. Her costume was a 1960s frock with a range of fake birds pinned to it and fake bite marks.

The party was at a house in the middle of no-where, well in a tent outside a house in the middle of no-where. I didn’t know anyone else at the party but Spiderman made lots of friends.

It was raining outside, and for some reason we ended up having a duel with party poppers on a bridge. I won the duel (although I can’t remember how this was decided) and my reward was a kiss.