cinco de mayo

Once upon a time, back when the milennium was newish, the Mister and I weren't married yet. We weren't even dating. We didn't even like each other. We hadn't even actually given the other the courtesy of a fleeting thought since he graduated high school. And yes, he is MUCH older than I, just in case you were not clear about that. MUCH OLDER!

We started hanging out in January of 2001. The Future Mister had befriended my wee brother, Uncle Benna, and I was keeping as close track of said brother as I could, despite living so far away. And why was I being such a pest? I know you are wondering. You are just going to have to wait for that story. It's a good one, though. Not actually good, but as far as stories go, it's about an 8 out of 10. Back to being a pest. I wanted to have a chat with the Future Mister about something, mostly to see who Uncle Benna was keeping company with. With whom? With who? Whatever.

Well, me and that guy started to chat, and gab, and blahblahblahblahblah... and then he asked me to join him for coffee. And since one of my major life rules is "Don't Turn Down Coffee", I had to go.

And because I am a moron, I didn't know that the Future Mister was considering this A Date. And also, I was dating two guys back in Far Away Land, and that was kind of a lot to juggle, with work and scheduling them in and all, I was just busy with other things. But mostly I am a moron.

So I was traveling back and forth every weekend, Childhood Home to Far Away Land, to keep tabs on the Childhood Home Situation, which was going swiftly and steadily downhill. I could only handle being in the Childhood Home Situation for thislong so I would make the Future Mister take me to the bar. Because he was the only person I knew there besides Uncle Benna, who was inconveniently too young to take me to the bar and ply me with Guinness. Jerk.

This scenario went on for MONTHS.

Easter rolled around (in April, happily unlike this year when Easter was the week after New Year's), and after my big family shindig, we went to see a movie in the Big City. I honestly can't remember what we saw, but I bet if you clicked over to the Mister's blog and left him a comment asking, he'd be happy to provide you with all of the details that I got wrong and/or are fit to share.

After the movie, I was driving us back to our little town, actually, I was getting on the On Ramp to the highway. And out of nowhere in particular, he blurted out something like this: I am in love with you and... It was not a long declaration, but he put it out there and I got stuck on the first part and the rest just ended up sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher. Being the classy dame I am, I stared straight ahead and gulped. A lot.

And told him I just really wanted to be friends.