Our Love Story, Part 3

So, after a long night of talking and then some passionate early morning kissing, we curled up together and slept. It was unreal. For two years I had been pining secretly in my heart to be with Sean, and it seemed like the impossible dream. Now he was here in my bed, snuggled up next to me asleep. When we woke up around 2pm, he had to go because it was his mother’s 50th birthday and they were having a surprise party for her. Unbeknownst to Sean, his mother had arranged for a woman to be there so she could hook Sean up with her. Thankfully, he was more interested in me! Later that night, he came back over to my place and again, we stayed up late talking and kissing. We had worked together for two years but really didn’t know that much about each other aside from what we were able to gather at work. The more I learned about him, the more I knew we were meant to be together.

On Sunday, the end of a glorious weekend August 1996, reality began to set in for Sean. He had already had one failed relationship with a co-worker and was beginning to get worried about what people were going to think if we started seeing one another. He wanted to remain professional because he had a career he was building and our company was small with 50 employees at the most. Dating the boss’ daughter didn’t exactly seem like the way to look professional. color me surprised when that afternoon he actually began to get emotional! I didn’t know it at the time but he was gunning for a job that was going to take him out of state in a month so his emotions had him all ajumble. That afternoon he told me that we were going to have to stay just friends for now, that he had some things to sort out. He wasn’t sure he was ready to make the leap to be with me. Needless to say I was somewhere between crushed and heartbroken! Here we’d spent all this incredible time together over the weekend, getting closer than seemed possible in that amount of time and he threw cold water on my burgeoning feelings for him. However, I hadn’t waited two years to see this thing go up in smoke. I’m not exactly a patient person but I could bide my time and convince him that we were meant to be.

We agreed to keep our weekend tryst a secret for now, until we could figure things out. We also agreed to not see each other that week because Sean wanted to clear his head. Geez, can I tell you how hard it was to go to work and not share with my officemate the amazing weekend I’d had? My friend Rebecca knew about my private crush on Sean and had encouraged me many times to act on my feelings. She, too, had faith that he would like me once he got to know me. Ok, you KNOW I told her about it!! I had to tell someone! I couldn’t keep all that a secret for crying out loud! We talked about it all day and I know neither one of us got any good work done. We sat in our office giggling like a couple of junior high girls. She would squeal when I recounted the first kiss and she was frustrated right along with me when he said he wanted to cool things off a bit. I was at the mercy of Sean’s “good sense”. Or was I?

That night, after I got home, I gave Sean a call. God, it was so good to hear his voice. We didn’t interact with each other much at work so this was the first occasion I’d had to speak to him all day. I told him that he had left a deck of cards at my house and asked if he wanted me to bring them to work the next day. “NO,” he replied, “Those were my uncle’s cards so I’d better come down and get them right now.” Huh? Ok, so the cards are special and he’s got to come get them…..R-I-G-H-T. He just lived a block down from me and my sister so he walked down to our place. I met him out on the stoop with the deck of cards in hand, “here you go!” I said cheerfully, thinking he was only going to stay for a minute. He sat down on a brick wall on our porch and we proceeded to talk about why the cards were special, and then on to exploits of his in college and other various and sundry topics. We were outside until almost midnight before either one of us realized what time it was! Sean had just finished telling me that he, this straight-laced young professional male, had long hair and nipple rings in college. WHAT?? “No way!!!” I laughed hysterically at the idea. He said, “I have some pictures at my apartment, you want to walk up there with me and have a look?”

(Is that a trick question??)

Story will continue………