I have two kitties to my left, preening and snoozing. Steph is in the front room, watching a movie on her new (enormous) TV and putting together a cardboard "trophy elephant" to hang above the fireplace in our dining room. (We technically have 4 fireplaces in our house, one being in the dining room....I clearly have an over-abundance of good things in my life, fireplaces included in that tally.)
Today is our anniversary and we were talking about our years together as we were prolonging the in-bed-time this morning. As I do every year, I brought up the details of our first kiss.
See, we met online (how lesbo-cliche?) -- just emailing at first -- for a very long time. It wasn't originally intended to be a set-up, or a dating relationship, or even probably a face-to-face anything....but eventually it became pretty clear that we'd have to meet and at least have a date.
There were a lot of ideas thrown out to meet, including one night before Christmas at the campus bar where she worked because she anticipated it'd be dead that night. I refused to meet someone for the first time at her job...and especially not at a campus bar....so I suggested after Christmas. Then we were going to have drinks on the 26th, after she got back into town from her parents' house up north. I was terribly sick and could barely breathe, let alone hold a conversation without puffy, droopy eyes...so I put it off until the 27th.
I worked that day, worked late in fact. While we'd planned to meet out together, I was running so late that I suggested I pick her up on my way home from campus, stop by my house and let Sophie out, and then get on to drinks and dinner. Here I broke my #2 Dating Rule (never let her know where you live on the first date)...but it was either that or waste an hour and/or make the puppy suffer.
We had a really nice dinner. The way she (jokingly) tells it, she was waiting for me to be as funny in person as I had been for those months in emails and phone calls....but I she was laughing and telling stories right along with me. We pretty much closed out the restaurant, were the last to leave and they turned off the lights as we stepped out. I took her home and we sat on the couch before I left for home, just talking and laughing....it was easy and time was clearly slipping by.
When I realized what time it was (and remembered that I had to work the next day)... I jumped off of the couch and explained that I had to leave. I clearly caught her by surprise....I practically ran down the stairs and out the door (think: Cinderella. It was late and I was pretty sure I'd turn into a pumpkin very soon.)
I guess I had tunnel vision until I got to the car. As I was waiting for my car to warm up, I realized how crazed I probably looked, running out of there. I thought about the night and the time we'd had....and I was bummed that I hadn't even stuck around long enough to get a kiss, or a squeeze.
I called her.
"Really? You're calling me 30 seconds after you left my house?"
"Yes. I am. I think you need to come back downstairs."
"Did you forget something?"
"I guess so. You should come down here."
I got out of my car and met her on her porch. She
came down the stairs with a smile and a drill in her hand. She stepped outside and put it down.
"That's hot. You greet me with a drill."
"Better this time than earlier tonight, right?"
"Likely better, yes."
"So you came back."
"You know, in the interest of not saying later and leaving, wishing I'd done something then: We just ABSOLUTELY had a great date and you need to kiss me after that."
After that was done, it really was time to go. I concentrated VERY hard at
getting to my car without tripping or skipping, either or both.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This morning we were laying in bed, briefly replaying the details before we started the day.
"I sure am glad you came back downstairs when I called."
"Yeah?"
"Yep - and that you kissed me after I said you needed to."
"Me too."
"That was pretty bossy, huh?"
"Well, I can't ever say I didn't know what I was getting myself into!"
Truth. Happy Anniversary to us!!
