ROBYN
Christmas was on Thursday and I was off until the following Monday. Aaron was supposed to be on an Island somewhere so technically he wasn’t expected back until after New Year’s. Throughout those four days, Aaron and I spent a lot of time together. We cooked and ate our meals together and we watched movies…it was domestic and cozy and I was still really happy. My only complaint…if I had to come up with one was that he seemed cautious about going out in public with me. We’d gone to the concert, but that had been in the middle of a crowded park with ten thousand other people. We hadn’t gone out for a meal together at all and any time I mentioned us going out to a public place he seemed hesitant. He’d either come up with something else for us to do or he’d start kissing my neck and touching me in places that completely turned off my brain. I told myself that he was reserved when I met him and I couldn’t expect that to change overnight. I would just have to be patient….
I got a call from my friend Melissa on the Sunday night before I returned to work,
“Hey she’s alive!” she said when I said hello.
I laughed, “I’m sorry. I meant to call you on Christmas day. I feel so bad…I just got preoccupied….”
“Preoccupied huh? Is that what you kids are calling it these days?”
Laughing again I said, “Why Melissa, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’ll give it to you straight then…you had sex, I can hear it in your voice…and there are FEELINGS involved!”
She was too funny, “Okay, I admit that I’ve been spending some time with…let’s just say THE most amazing man in the entire world.”
Melissa laughed then. “I can’t wait to meet the most amazing man in the world. Are you bringing him to the party Wednesday night?”
I hadn’t asked him yet. “Yes! I can’t wait for you to meet him,” I told her. We chatted for a while about how her and Chris’s Christmas was and what some of our other friends were up to. After I hung up I thought about the night I invited him to the restaurant and how embarrassed I’d been when he hadn’t shown up….But that was different right? We’re dating now and it would be perfectly logical to think that we’d be spending New Year’s Eve together. I just had to ask him.
Monday we both went back to work. I didn’t see him all day and the flowers that I’d fantasized about never materialized at my work station. That was okay though, I knew that part was a fantasy. Monday evening he called me around seven p.m.
“Hey lady, how was your first day back to work?”
“It was good, very productive,” I told him.
“Well, as your boss I have to say I’m happy to hear that.”
I laughed and said, “How was yours? I’ll bet everyone was surprised to see you back so soon.”
“Yes, I had to explain to fifty different people why I wasn’t on an Island somewhere. “
“Hey, I wanted to ask you…my friends and I do a New Year’s party every year. This year it’s at my friend Nadine’s house. She lives in Brooklyn Heights….”
“I’m sorry, Robyn, I can’t,” he interrupted me.
“I’m sorry? You can’t? I hadn’t even finished asking.”
“I know. I’m sorry. You were going to ask me to the party though, am I right?”
“Yes. I’d really like you to go. I’d love for you to meet my friends….”
“I can’t. Now that the executives know that I’m not out of town they’re expecting me to be at the executive party we throw every year for the shareholders. I’ve missed it every year. This year I’m in town so I have no excuses.”
“Oh…” I paused there; it was a good opportunity for him to invite me to his party since he “can’t” come to mine. The invitation didn’t come. Instead he said, “What about if you and I have dinner the night before instead? I know it’s the day before New Year’s Eve, but what does it really matter when we celebrate it?”
I was thinking, “Because kissing at midnight just won’t mean the same thing,” but I didn’t say it. I was still trying to be patient with him and I was still thrilled about any and all the time I was blessed enough to be able to spend with him. So what I said was, “That sounds great.”
“Good! I’ll have Jeffrey pick you up at seven.”
“You won’t be with him?”
“I’ll meet you at the restaurant; I’ll probably be coming straight from work.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Good night, Robyn.”
“Good night.”
I hung up the phone that night not feeling as happy as I had been. I missed that euphoric feeling I had for the first few days. I wasn’t the type to mope though I decided that I was going to make the best of getting to spend pre-New Year’s Eve with him. I went into my closet and started planning what I would wear….
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