I Met a Boy, Part I

So, I took a little break in November in December. I had the time of my life, to be perfectly honest. The end of October was AMAZING. I was feeling myself. I can't even lie. I had gotten over the hurdle. There were some residual emotions, but I was working through those. I had raised the funds for the Light the Night walk, and completed the event with minimal tears. Homecoming season was right around the corner, and while I would not be attending my alma mater's annual festivities, there were two other HBCUs that would surely fill that void. In November I kicked ass at work, increasing productivity and content for our little online store by 250%. I kid you not. December was the wind-down month. It was full of holiday parties, charity work, warm, fuzzy emotional moments with friends, and plenty of reflection. I headed home for Christmas, and thoroughly enjoyed a week of shopping, drinking with Mom and friends, a major party, one late-night rendezvous, and plenty of much needed rest.

But the biggest (and most confusing) highlight of Q4 of 2009 is "the new boy". We'll call him Aaron. I met this young man at the first of two consecutive HBCU homecoming weekends. I partied for two weeks straight - yes I did. I deserved it! Anywho, I met this guy... well, I had known him for awhile... he's Melanie's boyfriend's BFF. And, awhile back he'd mentioned to Melanie that he might, sorta, kinda have a thing for me. Well, I was completely preoccupied with that trashbag of a man who shall forever remain nameless, so, I never paid him any mind. Welp. I called myself ready to entertain something new, and there he was - friendly, happy to see me again, slightly intoxicated, handsome, and perhaps still a tad into me. It felt niiiiice. We chatted at the tailgate, and even danced together at the massive block party into the early evening hours. Afterwards, the whole groups of us (me, Anisa, Melanie, Mel's boyfriend, the boyfriend's friends, etc.) went back to his place for post-tailgate/pre-game/follow-up drinks to keep the party going. His. Place. Was. AWESOME. A gorgeous loft with smooth concrete floors, an exposed brick wall, a sunken in living room, space for a dining table AND desk, a full downstairs bathroom, and a quaint upstairs bedroom. Being a consultant paid well, I saw.

We were drinking, and he was doing/saying all the right things: pulled me aside, told me he wanted to take me out... on multiple dates. Once to the art museum. Again to the movies. A third date with his "little brother" and my "little sister" since we were both mentors through BBBS. It was cute. And I was thrilled.  A nice guy who liked me?! And had manners? Where do those come from? People were starving and the two pizzas he had graciously ordered for the group had apparently evaporated or something, so he asked me to come outside with him so we could order Chinese. We were struggling. We were both drunk and, I don't know if you know this but, Chinese take-out places don't typically deliver. But we were steady calling these take-out restaurants for food, perplexed as to why they wouldn't deliver food to us. Yeah, we were in the hood... so? 

After call four or so, my stomach was still growling, my head started to droop in disappointment when he leaned in and kissed me. Out of nowhere. This shy, somewhat awkward, but otherwise really cute guy pulled me closer to him and just went for it. Boy. Oh. Boy. Do you know how long it had been since I'd been kissed like that? With passion but uncertainty? With newness and excitement?! It was the kind of unsteady kiss that had us backing into the hallway wall, stumbling over each other's feet, forgetting about it, sinking into it, losing ourselves, relaxing... Whew, chile. I want to do that again.

We made our way back inside, empty-handed, and decided  a drive-thru might be a better alternative for our hunger woes. He drove. And, at every stop sign, stoplight, and remote pause in our trip, we were kissing. It felt so amazing. It felt so freeing. It felt so naughty! LOL. Was I back in school? This was fun! Innocent enough, but still kinda sneaky. Right up my alley.

The evening passed quickly enough. Aaron kicked everyone out, claiming we were headed to the W. No one was really feeling that, so we ended up just peacing out. From there, though, bloomed a cute little thing. We had a lunch date two weeks later, and subsequent outings after that. I was enjoying it. Granted, he was hard to get a hold of lots of times - he traveled for work, and wasn't much of a "phone person" outside of that (as he put it) - but we were maintaining. And it worked for a nice little while... Well, a month and a half.

"Not a phone person," hm? I could understand that, and I could respect it... but it became more and more of a hurdle with every interaction. He wasn't much of a communicator period. There would be HOURS in between texts; days between simple "check in" calls; and, a convenient amnesia that seemed to creep into our plans every once in awhile. Like, how was I supposed to get to know this dude if we rarely saw each other, and couldn't catch up over the phone in the interim? Couple that with the fact that we began a physical relationship rather prematurely and, well, it ended up turning into more of "a situation". We were nowhere near a "relationship" and I'm too old to be called a "boo". So, we were dating, and sleeping together, but not effectively communicating - at least not to my satisfaction... and that was troubling.

The death of our "situation" occurred on the eve of his company holiday party. I had gotten all dolled up, and pissed because everything kept going wrong. I ruined my manicure. The rain was f-ing up my new hairdo. I spent too much money on make-up, and was rushed to get ready when he surprised with an early pre-game time. Whatever. I got to his place and broke the f-ing wine bottle opener in the cork of a Merlot. I gulped a vodka cranberry instead and just did my best to calm my nerves. I was too jittery. The party ended up being a blast. His colleagues were great. We followed that up with a trip to his friend's house celebrate a GRE completion for, none other than, his BFF - Melanie's boyfriend. Blah, blah, blah. We decide to go out for more drinks and celebrate. Aaron and I were the first to leave, and in the parking deck, while we were waiting for everyone else to come out, we start to fool around. I'm not going to bore you with the graphic details, but we ran into a little... um... uncomfortable/awkward situation(s). It hasn't been the same since.