Don't you love remembering your first date with that special person in your life? The giggling, your butterfly-filled stomach, and just an overwhelming amount of euphoria. I honestly don't remember mine, but I do remember what was supposed to be my first date with my boyfriend of 7 splendid years.
We met in creative writing class in college and quickly became friends. In fact, I tried to introduce him to a few other girls from class but that didn't quite work out well. Then after a few months of hanging out, we had this one night where we spent hours on the phone talking about complete nonsense - do you squeeze your toothpaste from the top or bottom, favorite condiments for hotdogs, which side of the bed do you sleep on - and I could feel myself starting to have feelings for him. A few weeks later it was Halloween, so some friends and I hung out at a local bar then went back to my place. At about 3 am, everyone but me had crashed out. So, I called him up. Because I'm a mumbler and was whispering to keep from waking someone up, he decided to just come over and hang out. Sitting by the pool that night, talking about random things I found myself wanting to kiss him. I don't know if it was the moonlight or the alcohol, but it was at that moment I knew I liked him.
A few weeks later I decided to gather all of my courage and call him. But not just call him, I wanted to ask him out. He was totally up for it and said he'd love to go to a movie and dinner that Friday night. Thursday rolled around and I was getting really excited about our date, until he called. He said some friends had came into town and they all really wanted to get together and play Texas Hold 'Em. He asked if I would mind us rescheduling. I was a little sad about it, but decided to be a good sport and said it wasn't a problem. Luckily for me, my friends were planning to go to Latin Night on Friday so I joined them and spent the entire night drinking, dancing and have an absolute blast. When the bars closed around 2am, we weren't quite ready to finish having fun so we went to an after-party and kept on dancing. It was about that point that the alcohol made me lose all sense of reason.
I told my friends of the courage it took me to ask a guy out and how he had cancelled last minute. Being in a drunken state as well, they encouraged me to call him that instant and let him know how horrible he had behaved. Drunkenly obliging, I called him and told him he was a jerk for not going out with me that night. He had just finished playing poker with the guys and was on his way home, but having noticed the drunken state I was in decided to come over to the party and make sure I got home safely. About 15 minutes later, we walked into my apartment and I began telling him everything - about how much courage it took to ask him, about how much it stunk that he had cancelled and about how much I wanted to kiss him that night. I was a babbling fool that was stopped only by his lips touching mine. I looked at him in amazement, completely sure I had just imagined our first kiss. He grinned back at me, and at that point I was his forever.
So, I guess you can say it was the best almost-first-date. Either way, it was the beginning of "us".
