Gin Drinks and Joy

He's the guy to my left-- handsome, tan, brown-eyed and loquacious. I'm genuinely enjoying hearing about his stories, his passions, his dreams. There's something about his scorpion passion that riles up my own and makes this goat feel a little bit more adventurous. 

He ordered a gin martini, and I took a gin and tonic. With our coordinating drinks patiently waiting in between sips, we started to build up a Jenga tower with the pieces that were sprawled out before us. We soon realized that there was more to this game than we had originally thought... each rectangular block had either a truth or dare prompt written on it.

As a self proclaimed Jenga champ, Chris graciously obliged as I asked him to remove the first brick from our fugacious tower. I was surprised by his initial attempt: a fundamental piece. A daring choice. His tan fingers effortlessly slid the piece without creating a miniature earthquake. I was impressed.

Next, it was all up to me. Normally, I took the easy route but taking his lead, I tried to push a block from the middle of the tower. It gave way without hesitation, as did I when I read its prompt:

Kiss the person to your left.

I was more than excited to comply with the dare set before me. Looking into his big brown eyes, I silently asked for permission. Thank goodness the response was "yes".

This probably was our tenth kiss we shared, but it still felt new and somewhat scary. As someone who had been unlucky in love before, I was nervous to be vulnerable. Especially with someone who seemed so far out of my league.

For a while, we had been taking things slowly. I had just come out of a tempestuous relationship, and Chris was wanting to do things the right way. But to me, I wasn't sure if he really liked me. I had to look for signs.

And those signs were looking pretty promising. I loved that he didn't make me feel like I was an inconvenience. We first were planning on going sledding at Slab Cabin but when Dad didn't feel like it was worth it to shovel the driveway tonight and I had to tell Chris that I couldn't go out, he didn't just give up.

He came up with a new solution and soon enough he was picking me up at my place and driving us to his so that he could change. We went to Happy Valley Brewing and it was closed. There were so many instances tonight that he could have just given up, but he didn't. And the best part is that I didn't give up either. I got ready quickly, barely put on any makeup and was super excited to see him. 

We ended up at Liberty tap house around 11pm and stayed there until 2:30 in the morning. When I'm with him, time just passes so easily. I'm not waiting to go home or getting bored with him. I genuinely wanted to spend even more time with him tonight. Later, when he kissed me at the end of my driveway he said that he, too, could spend a while just standing there with me. 

Now, that I am back home, I am able to process what is really happening and how I am feeling: I really like this. I think I might have even felt a love bubble rise up a few times while we were talking. He's just so attractive in so many ways. And apparently he finds me attractive as well.

He told me that before we even met that one night at the ephemeral and mystical place that is Carpetland, he saw me there, and kept restraining himself from looking at me and turning to tell me that he thought I was the prettiest girl there. When he told me that, I royally freaked out. It's so nice to know that we've both been crushing on each other.

Oh and another thing is that there's something special about the way he says my name. It's a sort of reverence is what it sounds like. My name sounds so good coming from him, and I've never heard my name said in such a way. I think I say his name in a similar tone. So maybe there's a mutual respect and admiration there. Maybe there's something. Maybe there will continue to be something.