A drinks evening with some gay London bankers

A couple of months ago I wrote about a regular drinks evening in London for gay bankers. As a result of that post, a few of this blog's readers were put on the invite list, and at least one of them went along to the July event. I was unable to go along on that occasion, but recently I did find the time to attend one of these events.

I didn't want to go on my own so I had to find a friend to take, but who? The ideal friend would also be a gay banker, because then he would fit in. In the end I decide to try and get the Man from Fridae to go with me. After we decided that he should focus on trying to get a relationship established with the guy in Paris, I hadn't had much contact with him. So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to re-establish contact to see how things were going. A couple of weeks before the drinks event I send him an e-mail:

Hope you had a good holiday? And how was that concert you were going to go to last month? Anyway, I wondered if you'd be interested to go with me to the interbank drinks event for gay bankers sometime? I'm on their mailing list now, but not having been before I'd prefer to go with someone I know. I think the next one is coming up the week after next. Hope things going well with the guy in Paris. GB x

Within half an hour I get a reply:

sounds good.... can i confirm next week... so tired today after my recent travels. The guy in Paris is well... let's catch up over lunch sometime soon

The following week we have lunch and he seems to be in good form. He's still seeing his potential boyfriend in Paris regularly, although it's still too early to say what the eventual outcome will be.

But after exchanging various e-mails in the days that followed, on the day of the drinks event itself, the following e-mail is waiting for me when I get into the bank:

Not too sure about interbank drinks tonight. I had quite a few late nights recently and foresee a few more at the beginning of next week, so for the moment, I don't think so. Will let you know if there are any changes. But perhaps we could have a coffee together this afternoon?

Hmmm, that's quite annoying because it's a bit late now to try and find someone else to go with! But maybe I can change his mind somehow, after all, it doesn't sound like he's got any other commitments.

"Please come along with me tonight", I say in my sweetest voice when we meet up for coffee later, "otherwise I'll be all alone and miserable :-(. But if you come with me, at least there'll be one gorgeous guy for me to talk to :-)".

"Well maybe I could, perhaps just for a quick drink", he says, toying with the idea. "But what's it worth? You'll owe me a favour if I do come with you!"

Investment bankers eh, always dealing and trading, looking for a small advantage, even on the personal level. But at least it's a culture that I feel at home with!

"Well you could always make me your sex slave", I say mischievously.

"That's not a favour for me", he laughs, "that would be me doing you another favour. Don't forget, I know what you're like!"

Damm, he saw through my cunning plan. But in the end, he agrees to go with me after all. And later, he sends me a txt msg to confirm

i'll meet you outside at 7pm. i've decided to go to a friend's place who lives at XXXXXXXX before that

I end up getting there slightly early, so I stand outside and wait. Suddenly I have an alarming thought. The area where his friend lives is exactly the same area as the other guy from fridae that I met. What's the likelihood that the friend he's visiting is the other guy from Fridae that I met? I can certainly imagine that the two of them are friends. And then what would happen if they both come along tonight?

In the end though, the Man from Fridae arrives on his own. Pity, if my little fantasy had materialised, it would have been very entertaining!

"So have you got an invite for me", he asks.

"Yes, here you go". Although we could probably get in on a single invite, I had printed off two invites just in case.

Inside, the room already seems quite full, even though it's still relatively early. I buy a couple of glasses of Australian pinot noir and we walk around the room together, to see if we can find anyone we recognise.

To my surprise, throughout the entire evening I don't see anyone I know. In total, I'd guess that there were about 150 people, with a nice range of ages from early 20's to mid 40s. Most of the people were gay guys, although there were also a small number of lesbians. The venue was very nice too, and the atmosphere was quite chilled and friendly, becoming even a bit flirty as the drinks went down. I would certainly recommend it.

Initially, I spend most of the time talking to the Man from Fridae, but eventually he spots a friend of his from a squash club he used to go to. So we talk to the squash friend for a while, and gradually the circle of people we know grows. I actually find the squash friend quite attractive and suddenly an idea occurs to me - if the Man from Fridae can't be one of my boyfriends, perhaps some of his cute friends can be? But since the Man from Fridae is a bit dubious about my polyamorous lifestyle, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't want me to start sleeping with his friends!

Update 14-Oct-2012: see my post about the interbank web site.