Be My Valentine--Or Else!

So, eight--maybe nine--years ago, I was in a writers group.  We met monthly to read and critique one another's stories.  One of the group members, a published novelist, threw an Independence Day party one summer and invited the rest of the group, in addition to her many other friends (many of whom were also writers).  One such friend, another published novelist attended--and dragged along her best friend for company.

I met them there.  Best Friend was very cute.  Lots of long, dark curly hair, a brilliant smile and a great rack.  So I hovered, talking to them.  Even better, she was also a Fan, as am I.  We talked about science fiction and related topics.  I surreptitiously eyed her cleavage.*

I wanted to ask her out.  But being the introverted soul that I am, this required  considerable time and effort to work up my nerve.  Alas, I had not driven myself to the party, so when my friends were ready to go, I was torn away before I had a chance to ask her for a date.

Oh no!  Determined, however, not to let her get away, I wracked my brain.  I knew her name and she'd mentioned what sort of company she worked for.  So the following Monday I studied the yellow pages, identified what was probably the right firm and walked down to that building on my lunch hour (we both worked downtown).

I took the elevator up to the proper floor and asked the receptionist if SHE worked there.  Yes.  And then the receptionist called back to tell her she had a visitor.

YIKES!  That wasn't the plan!  I was just reconnoitering!  I planned to call her...later.  But I couldn't flee--how would it look if she arrived at the front desk only to be told that her visitor had fled?  I'd never be able to talk to her after that.  So I waited.**

Best Friend showed up.  She had no idea who I was.  I'd clearly not made as big an impression on her as she had on me.  She did remember me once we clarified where we'd met.  My memory of that initial conversation is mercifully vague now, but I didn't get a date.

She did agree to have lunch with me one day.  And we had lunches together about once a month for a long while.  That was it, though.   Eventually I stopped calling.  I'd found a girlfriend and spent all my attention on her (though I met Best Friend once downtown and told her all about my girlfriend and how we were engaged, much to her surprise...and later amusement).

Eventually the girlfriend dropped me like a bad habit.  I didn't call Best Friend for a long time because, well, it had been a long time and how was I supposed to just call her up after all that time?

But eventually we did reconnect.  I started participating in a usenet singles group that she was in.  We started having lunches together again.  Eventually she held a party for some of the usenet people; I attended, spent all afternoon flirting with her (as much as my introverted personality would permit), and--after everyone else had left and I was safely alone with her lest rejection cause me public humiliation, the ultimate fate worse than death--asked her go out with me.

And she said yes.  Of course, it would be two weeks before we could go out, what with her kids and the visitation schedule for their father.  But she said yes!

It was a looooong two weeks until our date.

But less than a year til we got married.  And at the end of this month, we'll have been married seven years!

Happy Valentine's Day, snippy !


*Not quite so surreptitiously as I'd thought.  She didn't notice, but her writer friend certainly did, and mentioned it to her later.  She never did approve of me after that.

**It never even occurred to me until years later that this might be seen as stalker-ish behavior.  I suppose I should be very glad that it went as well as it did.