The Way It Began

Eric told me how he was out with a group of friends one night for his birthday two years ago. “I didn’t want to go out to the club,” he told me. “I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate, I had just gotten out of a bad relationship, I wanted to spend the night here under the covers but my friends wouldn’t let me. They told me I had to go out with them or they would hire someone to come visit me.”

“I went to the club with them. I was feeling sorry for myself, I had thought that I would be in a committed relationship by the time I was 32 but there I was drowning shots alone in a crowd. I was miserable, I wanted to go home. I told my friends that I wasn’t staying out any longer, I turned to grab my jacket off my stool when I spotted my ex waltz in with someone new.”

“Oh no,” I cringed. “That had to be horrible!”

“It was,” he tugged on the blankets as I yawned. “Why don’t you crawl under?”

“Are you sure?” I was already half under them before I asked that. He nodded as I pulled the blankets up to my chin. “Ahh, so comfy,” I sighed contently. “Ok! Now tell me the rest of the story. How did you meet the utterly sexy Mike Pollett?”

Eric smiled as he continued. “I didn’t think he was that special when I first met him.”

“What?” I gasped. “Not that special? Are you crazy?”

“Maybe,” Eric shrugged. “Then again, he did walk in with my ex.”

“WHAT??” He nodded, I shook my head. “No way!”

He nodded once again. “Yes, the first time I saw Mike, he was standing next to my ex at the entrance to the dance floor.”

“So how did you…?”

“End up with him?” Eric smiled, “It took a while.”

“Ok,” I poked my hand out from under the blankets to touch his shoulder. “You have to tell me from the beginning.” I took my hand away again. “So you turned to get your jacket and you saw your ex with Mike, continue.”

“My friends tried to get me to stay but there was no way I was going to stay and watch my ex with his new guy. I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door, not even thinking to wait until Kirk, my ex, moved away from the entrance. I ran right into them.”

“What happened?” I asked when he paused.

“Well Kirk was an ass; he said some pretty nasty things about me as I stood there. It took a lot for me to just keep my mouth shut, I wanted to tell Mike what a loser Kirk really was but I couldn’t, I just walked out.”

“A couple days later, Brad, my friend, who I met through Kirk, called me up to see how I was. He told me that Kirk brought Mike over to meet all of them, telling them that Mike was his new guy but when someone mentioned it to Mike, he laughed at the idea. Brad told me that near the end of the night he was talking to Mike and Mike asked him about my relationship with Kirk and if I was still hung up on him. Brad told him no and apparently Mike asked him what my type was.”

“Oh,” I grinned. “So Mike was interested in you?”

“Yes, he was. Brad told Mike that I wouldn’t be interested in some pretty party boy, I was looking for a commitment.”

“He told him to forget about it?”

“Pretty much. I was happy that he told Mike that. I didn’t want some one who wasn’t looking for a relationship and that’s what I assumed that Mike was. Probably because he was hanging out with Kirk but mainly because he didn’t look a day over 20, even though I guess he was actually 26 then.”

“So how did you get from ‘no thank you’ to sharing a place, meeting each others families and being a couple?”

“Mike didn’t forget,” he told me with a smile. “He continued to let my friends know he was interested, he showed up at parties thrown by my friends, looking for me, but I didn’t go to most of them. A couple months went by before I actually spoke to him, I ran into him at Best Buy - I was checking out the DVD section, he had walked in to browse their games. He saw me, I was reading the back cover of a movie when he walked up and said, ‘good movie, lots of explosions and action’.” Eric laughed, “I was reading the back of ‘I am Sam’!”

I laughed so hard, I snorted. “Oh God! What did he say?”

“He turned red when I told him, ‘well ok,’ he said. ‘I don’t know the movie; I just wanted to get your attention.’”

“Awwww.”

Eric blushed a little. “It was cute,” he confirmed. “We ended up walking out of Best Buy without him having looked at what he went in there for. We went to the coffee shop next door and we talked. For hours. It was just after lunch when we went in there, at 5 we were still there so I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere for dinner. I didn’t want the conversation to end; he was a lot smarter than I first gave him credit for.”

“So that’s how you two started dating?”

“That was the start and almost the end too.” I asked him what he meant. “Well the person Mike was staying with ended up kicking him out so that their other friend could move in, he didn’t have my number - I had his. I called and was told that they didn’t know anyone named Mike. I thought he gave me a fake number! I was crushed; I really liked spending time with him.”

“When my friends told me that Mike was around begging for them to tell him my number or to ask them to give me his new number, I told them I wasn’t interested. They told him, I thought that was the end of it. Until New Years Eve that year, I went to the club, the club we went to tonight, with my friends. Mike was there by himself; he spotted me and came over right away. He tried to tell me what happened but I was too hurt to listen.”

“I was able to avoid him most of the night, although it was difficult. But at 10 seconds to midnight, he appeared at my side ‘This coming year I will make you see how serious I am’ he said as he grabbed my face in his hands. At the stroke of midnight, he kissed me.”

I squealed like the girl that I am. “OhmyGod! That’s so…” I shook my head, I couldn’t think of the word.

“Wonderful?” He suggested. “Amazing? The best New Years I’ve ever had?”

“Yes,” I squealed again as I moved forward and hugged him.

As he hugged me back, the bedroom door opened.

“Oh hell no!” Mike exclaimed before stomping into the room.