Talking to Strangers

Hooksexup asks deeply personal questions to people we just met.

 

 

Amelia, 23

What do you do for a living?
I'm a translator.

What other language do you speak?
French. I was born in Seattle, but I grew up in France.

So, how are French guys different than American guys?
They're a lot more direct. If they sleep with you, they consider you their girlfriend. Here, you can have casual sex and it doesn't mean anything.

Do you have any favorite hook-up stories?
I don't have a crazy story. But in New York, you meet people from everywhere. I dated an Egyptian boxer.

What was he like?
I actually found out later he was married and had two kids.

How did you find out?
He said he didn't want to have sex because he was a very religious Muslim. So we didn't, but then later on he went back to Egypt for his boxing, and his friend told me, "Yeah, he's married and has two kids." I'm glad we didn't have sex.

That's crazy. There was no indication the whole time?
I was very surprised that he would still be a virgin at thirty, but he kind of looked like a virgin.

What do you mean?
When he talked about sex, he was so shy. He was blushing and looking away like a fourteen-year-old boy. I thought because he was so religious, maybe he really was waiting.

 

 

 

Gabriel, 30

What do you do for a living?
I own a travel company. We bring high-school students to different countries to do home stays and community service.

So, that's how you met your girlfriend?
Yeah, we traveled together for a month and were buddies before everything else. We didn't know it was going to develop into a relationship, so I told her all kinds of things I wouldn't usually disclose. She once asked me, "Have you ever had experience with premature ejaculation?" I thought about playing it cool and being like, "No, what in the world are you talking about?" But we were being super-honest.

Do you have any crazy ex-girlfriends?
I really don't. I kind of bloomed late, sexually. I kissed a girl for the first time when I was seventeen.

Well, do you have a favorite hook-up story?
It was my sophomore year in college, and I just didn't know the dynamics of a random hook-up. There was a senior who was pretty hot. I thought she was way out of my league, but she kept being really flirtatious. Finally one day she asked if I wanted to come back to her place with her. I was really nervous, and I told her, "Yeah, I do. I just have to run back to my dorm room and grab my toiletry kit." I was such a nerd that I didn't realize that you're not supposed to bring your toothbrush and your deodorant. It's not that kind of sleepover.

Right, right.
We were in bed afterwards, talking, and I totally spaced on her name. She realized pretty quickly, and she stormed into the bathroom and shut the door. That's where my toiletry kit was! And I wasn't going to leave without my nerdy mechanical toothbrush. I was freaking out. Finally, I looked around and found a stack of her mail with her name on it. I knocked on the bathroom door and apologized, and we ended up kind of dating for the rest of the semester. 

 

 

 

Chris, 25

Where's the craziest place you've had sex?
Either at work, or at a rest stop.

Where at work?
On my desk.

Are you serious?
It was crazy. This job was basically at a call center in Midtown. I was the last person in the office, and the missus and I were going to go out for a night on the town. She was downstairs waiting for me, but I asked her to come up for a few minutes. I was actually on the phone with a client while we were getting it on.

Do you have any favorite hook-up stories?
In college, I and a few of my friends were hanging out at this gas station, where they also served food. This girl was looking at us and mouthing something; it looked like she was saying, "Do you want to have a gang-bang?" I was like, "What? I'm really drunk right now!" She came over and was like, "Hey! What are you doing? You guys want to have a gang-bang?" Long story short, it was a great night.

Wow.
Yeah, man. College is awesome. But it's weird now that I look back on it. Jesus, that's someone's daughter.

I'm trying to think what she could have been thinking.
She friended me on Facebook a couple months ago. She's married now, and she has a daughter.