It Was Worth the Wait

It was well worth it for this. 

I’ll admit, my emotions tend to get the best of me.  But I have met the most wonderful guy. Coming off of a bad date Sunday night, I wasn’t looking forward to another date tonight.  Here we go again.  Just another dud to meet just so I can go through the motions and get the volume up. People tell me it’s all about the numbers.  So I went through with it–like I did every other date. Chin up.

I was fearful.  He wrote long drawn-out emails.  A native New Yorker, he happened to take a bunch of pictures of Catherine Street last time he was there.  He sent them to me.  Ugh, this is an early sign of stalkerism.

But I still held out some hope.  If I didn’t, I would’ve cancelled.  I don’t have the time anymore. I’m tired.  It’s the end of the year.  I should be celebrating with friends, ice-skating in Union Square, drinking egg nog.  No more of this dating silly business.

8pm dinner at Gitane in the Financial District.  He was there before me–easy on the eyes, sweet-looking.  We talked about academia, our jobs, our backgrounds growing up, our families. We exchanged pictures of our little ones.  I have some super cute pictures of Benicio and his unruly hair!  It’s 11:30pm.  I just got home.  That was a 3 1/2 hour date.

He paid…always a nice gesture.  Atypical these days.  He walked me to my car, then pulled out a present.  Four CDs he had made of all his favorite music.  He should know.  He’s a music professor at NYU, visiting professor for two years at Stanford.

“Omigosh, I feel like I’m in 8th grade.  This is so sweet.  It’s like mixed tapes, but CDs.”

I needed confirmation.

“Do you want to hang out again?  Would that be ok?”

“Catherine, I’d love to.  I had such a nice time at dinner.  I feel like we talked about so many different things.  I enjoyed tonight.”

“Really?  When do you get back from New York?”

“The 31st.”

“So we’re going to hang out on New Year’s Eve?”

“I would love that.”