My husband’s name is David. He’s a great person. I met him when I was working at Denny’s as a waitress in 1992. He came in almost every day, and he sat at the counter. Once I learned that he had just got out of the navy, and his last base was Key West, I kind of gravitated to him.
I was just recently back from being in Miami and I was kind of home sick. As far as I was concerned, Key West was part of “home” to me. I loved talking to him. I once spent my entire break standing there, talking to him. If you’ve ever worked a job where you’re on your feet the entire time, you cherish your lunch break. But I spent mine just talking to him.
I kind of unconsciously flirted with him for months. He didn’t pick up on it. And I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing. In early January of ’93, on some weird impulse, I asked him what he was doing the following night (I knew he was off & so was I). When he said, Nothing, I asked him if he wanted to go see a movie with me.
I’m not sure who was more shocked, him at me asking, or me, because he said yes. I gave him my number. But I told him I had plans for the morning. While I was out during the day, my ignorant roommate erased David’s messages. I hadn’t thought to get his number, so I couldn’t call him back. He never called while I was home. (I did tell him I had plans, I guess he forgot)
He thought I stood him up. And I felt so bad about that, and I wanted to kill my roommate who deleted the messages on purpose because he’s an ass. Anyway, David came into Denny’s again, and we made plans yet again.
Our first date was a disaster. We were supposed to go to a movie, but the weather was nasty. I asked him if he just wanted to rent a movie, and we could stay in and order pizza. He said yes.
He came over, we started watching Innerspace, and we ordered pizza. I got a called from my asshole roommate. He had an accident in his girlfriend’s car (my other roommate). He wanted me to go pick her up from work, and bring her to the ER. (Right now, I’m beginning to wonder if he did it on purpose to ruin my date)
I apologized to David, and asked him if we could try again. He said he’d just come with me. So we spent part of our first date in the ER waiting room, watching Are You Being Served? When we found out that Russell was ok, David and I left. I had called and cancelled our pizza order, so we were still hungry.
We went to Little Caesar’s Pizza. When they asked for a name, he said David. I realized I still didn’t know his last name, so I asked him. When he answered, the first thought in my mind was, “It’s a weird name, but I’m going to have to get used to it.” Somehow, I knew I was going to marry him.
We took the pizza back to my place, ate it, and finished watching Innerspace. He never made it home that night. In the morning, he woke me up saying, “Look at the snow”, then proceeded to not let me go back to sleep.
Our second was a disaster. Long story made short, we were supposed to watch my brother’s kids, but they were being brats and no one was disciplining them. David can’t handle brats, so we left.
Side note there…if you had a baby sitter you trusted, wouldn’t you get out of the house as fast as possible instead of goofing around? Especially if the sitter was free? Not my brother and sister in law. I couldn’t discipline the kids while they were still there. So I gave up and told them sorry, we couldn’t stay.
Anyway, even after all that, David did something kind of romantic. On the way back home (a 50 mile drive) he told me he was going to play a song, and I really needed to listen to it. The song was Eddie Money’s, I Think I’m In Love. That was how David told me he loved me.
So our scheduled first date didn’t happen. Our actual first date was partially spent at the hospital. Our second date was a disaster. But he stuck around, and that really impressed me. He was a keeper.
In the 21 years we’ve been together (Our 21st wedding anniversary is in Dec) we’ve been though alot. I almost died in 1997. We moved in here with his mother when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1998. Last year I fell in love with someone else (still unresolved) and this year I finally had to admit that I’m bisexual.
We still love each other, he still makes me smile every day. He is an awesome man, and I’m extremely blessed to have him. He’s my soul mate. I’m glad he still loves me. And I’m glad he didn’t give up on me, and that he’s willing to fight for me. I don’t care about material things, I don’t need jewelry or flowers. What I have, is a man who loves me, and always has my back. And that is worth more than any amount of gold.
Bellaelena 