It's A Great Day For A Love Story

When I met the Sexy Beast, she was seeing someone, and I had been in a relationship with my ex for about seven years when the SB and I were introduced. She and my ex were playing softball on a team together -- and after a game we ventured out to dinner at Guero's. I was hardly a jock then and still am not -- so the Sexy Beast saw me at the game, book in hand, likely a script, reading rather than watching what I'm sure was, given the kind of computer geek women on the team, a very sad softball practice.

After dinner, the Sexy Beast and I talked in the parking lot. Here's where I confess to the now public knowledge that the Sexy Beast was cute, but, because she was in a relationship that was a little rocky, I perceived that she was, well... a mess.

Fast forward a month. My ex goes to visit family and friends in California. While she is away a couple of things happen... neither of which entails any guilty behavior on the part of the Sexy Beast nor I, so don't get your hopes up...

1. The Sexy Beast calls me, just to chat, HONEST, and she's down about her current love situation. I tell her she needs to go buy a party hat. I don't remember this -- but she did go out and buy a party hat. Since then, the Sexy Beast gets a new party hat every 4th of July.

2. Meanwhile, the ex is in California. She has determined that she is in love with her best friend there, and that the best path for her life is to move back to California from Texas.

Now, I digress at this point to clarify that I have few hard feelings any more for my ex. As we've all heard, not forgiving someone is like taking poison and expecting someone else to die. And if you haven't heard it, now you have. Nonetheless, I did know my ex well enough to figure out something was up that Sunday night when I called to talk to her -- and this left her with no choice but to break her news to me over the phone. After seven years... There is really no good way to do it -- and there might have been better ways but I had her. I could tell something was up and she is honest so don't hold it against her.

I went off the deep end. There were many people worried about me -- but, obviously, I came out of it.

In the meantime the Sexy Beast and the ex keep in touch and hang out in a purely platonic way. The Sexy Beast, who can sleep through the loudest THX battle scene in any given movie theatre, was told once by my ex, when they were hanging out late one night, that she needed to eat some CornNuts -- they'd keep her awake. You might guess the mileage we get out of that one everytime we see CornNuts. I myself have other methods of keeping her awake. Get your mind out of the gutter...I snore! That keeps everyone in the HOUSE awake. The Sexy Beast even recorded me snoring last week!

But back to my story.

Fast forward a couple of months again. I have come out of my funk. It's my birthday and I'm having a big fun party. A friend of the Sexy Beast's and mine, who we found out that night was mutual, dragged the Sexy Beast to my party -- and we "met again."

I uncharacteristically kissed her under the streetlight across the street from my house at 4am after everyone but my sister had left, and the minute I set foot on the turf of my yard I was embarrassed. She must think my ex and I are (Corn) nuts! She must think I'm an idiot. I went to far. I.. I... I...

called her the next morning as soon as was humanly appropriate -- worried, and apologetic.

She said: "It was the best appetizer I had all night."

I'll save you the details of the next few months, but our first Valentine's Day together was spent at the wedding of that friend who brought The Sexy Beast to my party. We wore red dresses and through no fault of our own looked like Twinkies. Unbeknownst to each other, we both bought each other dinner rings adorned with garnets.

We've had, eight, or is it nine? Valentine's Days since then, all of them worth every moment.

Today I wrote a private haiku for her.

I don't remember it, so I will write another.

You are blessed light.
A partner for all time.
You embrace my snore.