Croissant and Cocktails: The Sex Tales of a Frenchman in London

4 - Passion, drugs and other games (January 2022)

Like any other year since 2008, I woke up on the first of January with a terrible hangover. I hosted the New Year's Party at my place with a theme, which was a masquerade. The events of that night were incredible, from fitting thirty people in my flat to watching the city's fireworks from my rooftop. My friend Helen even got literally on fire with her ostrich feather coat. (Thankfully, nothing besides the coat and her hair was too damaged).

Many events were about to happen, but let's talk about everything in order...

I went to a bag exhibition at the V&A with  Aphrodite and Sarah on the Sunday 2nd. Still exhausted from the New Year. The exhibition was terrible, and we ended up in a little cafe near the Natural History Museum. I was feeling super chill and happy to finally look forward to this new year. I went home and had a bath when a guy from Grindr texted me to meet. I said I was down for a drink but that I didn't want to go out. I invited him to my place as Gabriel was still in Lebanon (or maybe Dubai at that time), and I made some cosmopolitans and joints. The night was great; his name is Bastien, and he's a student at Imperial College London. He's 24. One thing led to another, and we had sex all night long, which was actually GREAT. He left in the morning.

The following afternoon, my new friend Candice came to see me at my place while I was working. We had met a couple of days before the New Year, and she's the flatmate of Helen (the girl on fire). I explained to her what happened with this young student the previous night, and we laughed about it, but I was still saying that I'd definitely like to sleep with him again.

She, on the other hand, was explaining the complicated relationship she had for a while with that guy. He was bringing her to a private membership club where they were having the kinkiest sex, though he was nowhere close to get into something committed. Like a relationship. It was overall a great afternoon where I completely forgot to work. But, it was worth it. This afternoon with Candice reminded me of my old days in Paris when I was simply having the best time talking about men with someone I'm on the same page with. With wine, obviously.

It's no secret that I've never been to university, even less on a campus. Well, except Columbia in NYC, but that was in 2019, and I went there to tan. Anyways, Bastien texted and invited me to his campus as he was working there as a bartender. I asked my friend Sarah to come with me, and I didn't know that night would end up in a terrible hangover and some shameful messages. We arrived there around 8 pm with Sarah, and after some problems getting in, as we were not students, we ended up at a table paying student prices for white wine bottles and shots. By 10 pm, drunk and out, after some spicy talk with Bastien, Sarah and I got lost in Hyde Park before calling a cab to get to Soho, where, surprisingly, everything was closed. We went to a gay bar called "The Village" and drank several glasses of vodka and RedBull. Next thing I know, I woke up in my bed, Sarah by my side, with another hangover. In the living room : a mess. Between joints and McDonald's leftovers. Some videos showed that we actually were drunker than we thought, thanks to a tray of free shots that Bastien gave us. Also, talking about him, I texted "I really like you and all," which he replied the same. Back in a sober state though, I wasn't even sure that I liked him. I liked the sex with him, but him?

The first week of January went quite fast, between drinks with Blair at The Little Yellow Door in Notting Hill, and my friend Juliette's birthday on the Saturday. I had some more sex with Bastien on a Friday morning in the jacuzzi and sauna of my building. Which was fucking good. On Sunday night, he cooked dinner for me at my place, and then we had sex again the whole night. The second week was about to start that Monday morning when we woke up, but the best surprise of the year was there: Gabriel. He was back home. I kicked Bastien out as fast as I could to talk with my best friend about absolutely everything!

I introduced him to Candice the same day, in the afternoon. As he had to work, I was catching up with her with a joint and a bottle of wine on the rooftop. The next day, while I was at the office, Gabriel asked me when he should break up with his boyfriend. A story that should've ended, in my opinion, last summer. However, I replied that I wanted him to be single by 7:30 pm that Tuesday night when I'd come back home. And believe it or not, the break-up happened by the time I got there. This led us to some conversations about relationships and how our lives are evolving. The most important part is that he was truly relieved and happy. He even felt bad for not feeling sad, but the love that he has for his ex-lover did transform into a brother kind of way. So here we were, both single again with a whole world waiting for us. The beginning of the year was good as COVID started to disappear from our everyday lives. We still had to wear a mask on public transport, but by the end of the month, the UK would just go back to normal.