The First Few Hours...With Him (Me!)

I’m really liking this Two Perspectives thing we’ve got going on here. Kessabug was nice enough to send me this, this morning after mine went up. It’s better – longer – prettier. Check it out!

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I was wandering around this apartment building through the mud and all, in heels.  I saw number 4, 5, 8 but could not for the life of me find 2.  A cat came up to me on the sidewalk when I texted, where are the numbers? which is where I got the if I meow, will you let me in?.  I wondered if this cat was Mini – it had similar colors and was very sweet.

I think we both reversed directions a few times- with the same idea.  Finally, I got to see him around the same spot I sent the text.  I was wearing a semi-formal bright red dress with a little heart.  It was a knee-length dress but it was 28 degrees outside and I had been outside about 20 minutes already.  Suuuu, yeah, I was FREEZING!

My first reaction was oh my gosh!  You poor thing…  He had a just rolled-out-of-bed-with-the-flu look to him.  I gave him a big hug and he gave me a small one-armed non-committal hug.  I actually thought initially that I had severely annoyed him- showing up unexpectedly and all.  I knew that he was sick-ish.    I was content spending the time at his apartment while he rested.  He pointed to a random un-numbered door on the side of the building and darted toward it.  That door opened to a mailroom and stairs.  Strange that one building would have a few indoor apartments accessible by one door then have a bunch more around the outside with their own doors.  Trust me, there’s a reason I couldn’t find it.

We went upstairs and he apologized for the mess.  I’m not the cleanest person and I work with people much MUCH worse – I surprised him – so I wasn’t worried.  We went into his living room (he was already sitting) and he motioned for me to sit with him.  We had a few moments of truly awkward silence where I feared that I may have made a mistake in surprising him.  We talked a little about how he was feeling, some odd movie he was watching, the snow on the ground that he swore wasn’t there, about his work, about my car, etc.  His cat, Mini came over.  She was all over me like catnip – it was awkward.  He laughed finally and said something about how she likes perfume and deodorant.

BroJo’s phone rang and he answered it.  At first, I thought it was a business call from his reaction and the conversation I wasn’t eavesdropping on (*shifty eyes*) until he ended with “I love you too”.  Then I was hoping it wasn’t a work call!  j/k.  He said that his mother had invited him to lunch.  He asked if I wanted to go (ya know, after the fact) and all I could think was Nah, you two kids go and have fun!  I’ll just stay here and hang out at your (a stranger’s) place til you get back.  I asked if I could use his bathroom to change because my dress was just a little cold (28 degrees in Missouri vs 55 in Dallas).  The color literally drained from his face when he said it was at the back of the apartment and that I would have to go through his bedroom.  It wasn’t near as bad as he made it seem.  His apartment was actually a lot bigger than I thought.

I changed.  He excused himself to go change.  I thought he would do just that- change.  I was shocked (somewhat) when I heard the water turn on and he started to take a shower.  So about 30 minutes later (like seriously BroJo?) when he came out, I was curled up and half asleep on the couch watching this weird movie.

I guess that’s when I finally saw him- like not in a shocked state.  He was very handsome and I was getting excited about hanging out with him.

We took my car, so I could kennel the dogs in my room (yeah, I’m a horrible person because I left my dogs in the car).  The puppies took to him right away- aren’t they wonderful guard dogs?  We left to go to the diner.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected.  I was fair-warned by BroJo so now I was all good-n-nervous.  At the diner, I was both pleasantly surprised and horrified.  It was a true diner.  All I could think about the first several minutes was that the last time I was in a real diner, an epi-pen was involved.  I have some weird food things (not peanuts or eggs).  I found something that I prayed was ‘safe’.  As we ordered, I worried if I was supposed to pay, offer to pay for everyone, or not say anything.  I’m a wimp and opted for the last option.

His mother was very nice.  Most of the conversation was between BroJo and his mother.  I was completely lost navigating names, family, work, church people (from both), and random happenings in the area.  She kept giving me side glances so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say something or not.  She directed a few questions toward me exactly like so, what do you do?  I have two general responses when in high stress environments- ramble on and on or to give short, like one word answers.  I started to ramble about being a home health nurse but changing to a college nurse in a week or so- and stopped there.  I felt somewhat intrusive- only because I felt that this was their time to talk and be together and I was just sorta there.

She mentioned a new pastor at her church.  He was from somewhere in Africa and she loved his perspective from a different culture.  It sounded interesting.  She also mentioned BroJo and his brother’s kindness on Valentine’s day when she received three bouquets of flowers.

BroJo paid for all three of us- which surprised his mother (I think he was on good behavior to make a good impression).  She gave me a big hug, said it was nice to meet me and she looks forward to seeing me again.  Awesome!

I dropped BroJo back at the apartment because he had the bulletin to do for church the next day.  He said that he would come by when he was done in about an hour or so.  He didn’t want me to come by his work and it would be a fairly quick thing.  I wasn’t pushing anything because my exhaustion was starting to kick in and figured it would be a good time to let the dogs stretch their legs and for me to grab a cat nap.

 At the hotel, I left the door cracked (stupid because it was in the 20s outside).  I actually worried if BroJo would really return or find somewhere to hide for the day.  Regardless, I fell completely asleep within a few minutes.  The dogs were running around, jumping on the other bed (because they know better than to bother me) so I wasn’t cognizant when BroJo knocked.  I did, though, hear the phone.  I kinda slurred that the door was open and *poof* there he was.

 I hazily sat up and was sat in more awkward silence while I tried to wake up some and he played with the dogs.  I asked what he wanted to do.  Next, I asked what there was to do around the area and he mentioned a movie.  I figured we would probably go to a movie or something at the end of the day once other time-restrictive things (I didn’t have anything specific in mind but museums, malls, historical places, etc. usually close around 5) closed.

 He said that his mother would be home in about 30 minutes and we could let the dogs run around there.  I agreed and we goofed around with the dogs for a while before heading out.

His mother has an immaculate, beautiful place.  She gave me the grand tour- it was truly a beautiful, southern-style apartment.  I also met Cujo – and he was a cutie minus always trying to get my fixed beagle’s britches.  I don’t understand because my other dog (a Pomeranian who was also closer in size to Cujo) wasn’t fixed.

 So, she was watching Lifetime.  It was some movie about this guy who was engaged to this beautiful woman but she wouldn’t put out or he had some weird expectation that they had to be married or something – don’t quite remember.  Since he wasn’t getting any at home, he went around and raped, killed a few, and robbed like 45 stores or something ridiculous.  He drove a yellow Camaro (that was the one thing that got him caught) and he burned all the evidence.  I only remember this because his mother was either talking to BroJo and I zoned out on the movie and then his mother left to deliver something to a neighbor and BroJo wasn’t talking.

 So, the lounger-thing.  His mother was sitting on the sofa, Cujo jumping around one side and throw pillows covering the other side.  I wasn’t sure where to sit.  I’m used to sitting on the floor, but I had more couth than that, especially since I was the company.  I opted to smoosh next to BroJo on this overstuffed lounger (not a loveseat).  At first, he had his elbow at the back of my head.  It was somewhat uncomfortable but I nestled closer to him, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer.  I put my head on his chest and watched the movie since I was at the wrong angle to even see his mother.

After somebody (I really hope it wasn’t mine) had an accident, Cujo was blamed and I followed the dogs outside.  I sat on the sidewalk a bit and talked to a neighbor about one of the times Cujo ran away and she found him and he was kept in her apartment for a day.  About this time, my dogs were out of sight and my beagle was eating something around back.

 When we all went back inside, I cuddled back up to BroJo and we finished the movie.  His mother returned from her adventure and then said that she wanted to know our plans because she was going to Mass.  She egged him that he should join her sometime.  She also told us to leave out the back.  Finally, I pulled BroJo up and said I would go to Mass with her.

Magically, we were all going to Mass.

 It’s been awhile since I went to a Mass.  I didn’t realizes that I had totally forgot nearly everything.  I did remember the Lord’s prayer (in Spanish, sign language, and English), that I’m not allowed to take communion, the ‘peace be with you’ thing I love, and supposedly the ‘and also with you’ that changed to ‘and with your spirit’ or something.

The new pastor was okay.  He had a thick accent and was hard to understand.  I did like and agreed with his mother that he mentioned things culturally specific to him and how they compare to things here.

 I said a lot of prayers in there.

 After, we left to return the dogs and start our first date together – in person!

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Tomorrow you will read how the date went…from my side of the table. ~ BroJo

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