Hi there. First time posting here in a while - It looks like a lot has changed!
For a bit of context, I'm a 39 year old single guy. Just this last Saturday gone by, I attended a social occasion for an old friend of mine 'Ben' (we went to high school together and usually meet up a few times a year), plus a group of his friends (including 2 or 3 whom I had met before).
Soon after I first arrived at the bar, Ben confessed to me that he had invited a single female friend of his, 'Helen', to meet the group of us for dinner at a nearby restaurant later on in the day. He told me she is about my age, and where she is from (an eastern European country). The intent being to introduce Helen and I to each other. Helen had been told about this plan in advance (apparently she had confided in feeling a bit lonely recently), but for me it was a surprise....
So later on we were at the restaurant and finally met Helen. I was pleasantly surprised that she was even prettier than I was expecting (and I had been told how attractive she was by the others), elegant and well-presented lady. Unlike the rest of our very tipsy group, both Helen and I were only drinking a tiny amount as we were both driving.
Somewhat embarrassingly throughout the dinner, Ben and his brother 'Anthony', (somewhat drunk whilst I was pretty much sober), kept up-talking me and exaggerating things about me that are simply untrue (for example : Telling Helen how I used to work out at the gym and was super buff!) I wasn't going along with this for a moment, so I politely corrected them on the spot. Furthermore, whenever Helen was speaking to one of the others at our table, Ben would lean in close, saying things like "How's it going there? You're in, mate, trust me!" I don't think Helen could hear this over the noise, but she was sitting next to me so it was pretty awkward to say the least.
Eventually as the evening progressed, it felt like conversation between Helen and I was just beginning to take its stride as we were asking questions about each other... Then it began. One table nearby suddenly began singing 'Happy Birthday' - As loud as they possibly could. Then, just as we went to continue our conversation, another table even closer sang 'Happy Birthday', even louder than the other table, and then continued to be jovially loud for some time after... So yeah, that was our conversation derailed well and truly! 🙃
Our group dinner came to an end not too long afterwards. Perhaps regrettably, I decided against asking Helen if she'd like to catch up some time, nor did I get ask her for her number. I honestly felt like any rapport we may have otherwise developed in chatting was distracted by the noisy environment, and the 'Happy Birthdays' nearby were just the icing on the cake!
In the end we all said our good nights outside and as Helen walked off to her car, Ben expressed his disappointment in me, asking if there was "something wrong" and "opportunities like this become rare as we get older". Meanwhile, Anthony insisted on giving Helen's number to me (despite me not asking for it). I saved her number, although I already knew that I have no intention of actually messaging her out of the blue, without knowing that she'd be cool with it.
I'm open to the possibility of getting to know Helen a little more in the future as friends, and possibly as a potential date, but I don't know if I quite figured out whether or not she'd be equally interested. Was Ben (and his brother) out of place for trying to push the point too much, rather than just let things happen as they happen?
TL;DR met a nice lady through mutual friends at dinner, didn't swap numbers as I wasn't quite sure that we had built enough rapport amongst the noisy, distracting environment, friends think I'm an idiot for not making the most of the opportunity.
