May 16
th
, 2018
Dear Diary,
I don't know who this man is that I'm married to, but I think I like him! Last night Jim did something so out of character. He took me on a date, but not just any date, an anniversary date, and not just any anniversary date, but extra special anniversary date.
It was almost like the movie Groundhog Day.
He went all out to impress me, and it worked. Then, when we got home, he worked me over but good! We sure didn't do that on our first date!
The damn dog interrupted, wanting to go out, just when things were getting interesting this morning, but with the kids gone to Grandma's for the weekend, I'm hoping there's more to come! Hope hell! I think I'm going to go jump his bones in the shower right now!
As the garage door rumbled
up, I was surprised to see Jim's blue and silver Dodge pickup in the garage. He's normally not home this early. I crept my 3 Series to a stop in its customary place, switched off the car, and gathered my stuff before opening the car door. Hands full, I bumped the door closed with a nudge from my ass. I juggled my files and purse to get the door open and stepped into the kitchen. I'd have to shut the garage door after I put my purse down.
Jim was waiting on me, standing in the kitchen with a big smile on his face. He was dressed in a dark blue sport coat over tan pants, a powder blue shirt, and a bold red tie. I stopped, shocked to see him dressed like that. Jim was a civil engineer for the City of Charlotte, which meant he normally wore work boots, jeans, comfortable shirts, and a hard hat. Coats and ties were reserved for weddings and funerals.
"What's the occasion?" I asked, forcing my feet back into motion to step around him, nudging the dog out of the way as I walked into our bedroom and tossed my purse and files onto the bed. Bentley, our Old English Sheepdog, bounded onto the bed for his customary greeting scratch of the ears.
"Our twenty-fifth anniversary," he said, following me into the bedroom.
I snickered as I scratched. "You goof. It's not our anniversary. Where're the kids?"
"Mom's got them."
"She drove down from Asheville?"
He nodded. "She was waiting for them when they got off the bus. She'll bring them back Sunday evening."
My eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"
He grinned. "I told you, it's our anniversary."
"Our anniversary is in September, and it's not our twenty-fifth." While I appreciated his effort, it annoyed slightly me he couldn't remember the month
or
the year.
His smile broadened. "Our wedding anniversary is in September, but I didn't say wedding anniversary, did I? Twenty-five years ago today, you went out on a date with me."
I looked at him. "Really?" He nodded. "How can you remember that?"
His smile spread even wider. "It was your first day of class, our senior year, remember? Classes at NCSU started this week, and we went out that Friday."
I smiled in memory. His friend was dating my friend, and we met at a charity event. Every year, North Carolina State University had the various departments build shelters in an expansive common area that were occupied twenty-four hours a day, for seven days, to raise money and awareness for the homeless. Jim was in the engineering department, and they always had the best shelters, complete with batteries charged by solar power, lights, a fan, and television. I'd been sitting in the finance department's shelter, bored out of my mind, and ran the batteries in the Game Boy I'd gotten for Christmas down. Anna, my friend and roommate, who was sitting with me to keep me company, took my batteries over to the engineering shelter where Kevin, her squeeze, was sitting, to recharge them. Three hours later, Jim brought the batteries back.
Jim was cute enough, but not really my type. He was a little nerdy for my taste, one of those guys that would always be slim, but would never muscle up, and I tended to go for guys that were a little bulkier. He'd asked me out several times after that, but I always found a reason not to go, much to Anna's annoyance. She was always bugging me to give him a chance. She was a hopeless romantic and had visions of four best friends marrying and living happily ever after in side-by-side houses. I expected nothing less from a woman majoring in textiles.
Jim was from Asheville, I was from Greensboro, so when we broke for the summer, I thought that would be the end of it. I was wrong. When we'd returned to school for our senior year, he'd tracked me down and showed up in my Advanced Corporate Finance class, a dozen red roses in his hands, just as class was starting on the first day.
He boldly asked me out in front of the entire class, but then more quietly said if I told him to go away, he'd never bother me again. Every eye in the class was on me, and as I looked around, I could sense if I turned him down, he'd have a dozen women asking
him
out before he reached the door. He stood, roses in hand, waiting for my answer. It felt like I'd agonized over the decision for hours, but people later told me it was only a few seconds.
"Okay," I'd said softly, my face burning in embarrassment.
He'd beamed as he stepped closer. "I'll call you," he'd said quietly as he placed the flowers in front of me.
I wasn't pleased he'd put me on the spot like that, but Anna had nearly swooned when I told her about it later, and by the time we met for our date, I'd decided it was a rather sweet, if daring, gesture on his part. If I'd turned him down, fifty-odd people would have seen his failure. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
I hadn't thought of that moment in years. Jim and I were happily married, while Anna and Kevin had broken up less than a year later. It just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. Where Anna and Kevin were always hanging on, and slobbering all over, each other, Jim was far more reserved, claiming smart people didn't advertise when they had something precious. He kept our growing affection discreet, his touches and kisses simple and inconspicuous. Anna and I shared an apartment our junior and senior year, and when Jim stayed with me, he was an intense, giving, lover, but he wasn't given to histrionics, in contrast to Kevin and Anna. Some nights I could hardly sleep for them banging in the next room. If I hadn't been holding the pillow over my head to muffle their over-the-top moaning and cries of passion, I'd have stuck my finger down my throat so I could puke.
"You're sure today's the day?" I asked with a smile. Knowing Jim, it probable was.
"Actually, it's not. I looked it up and the actual date was this Wednesday, but it was the first Friday after classes started, twenty-five years ago, and that's today. I could have waited a few more years, until the day and date lined up, but celebrating our twenty-seventh anniversary doesn't have the same oomph, and I wanted to do this on a Friday so I could have you all to myself for the weekend." He grinned and waggled his eyebrows, causing me to snicker.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Someplace special, so dress up."
"When are we leaving?"
"As soon as you're ready."
I held his gaze a moment until he made a shooing gesture. I undressed and then stepped into my closet to select something to wear as he propped and watched. When I bent over to pick up my shoes, he tickled me on the ass, making me jump and shriek in surprise.
"God, I love making you scream," he said, his voice low, sexy, and teasing.
"Oh, stop it!" I scolded.
Jim and I had been married almost twenty-two years. We'd had our ups and downs, but now that the kids were a freshman and junior in high-school, things were easier. He'd been a doting father. I sometimes felt like I played second fiddle to the kids when they were young, but I couldn't complain he hadn't done his share raising the kids, and as the kids needed him less and less, he'd devoted more and more attention to me.
The last two or three years had been as good as any I could remember. Our love had matured along with us, and what we missed in our once explosive sex life had been more than made up for by the depth of our love.
I wriggled into a dress. Like most couples, we'd put on weight after we'd married. After two kids, my hips had broadened and I was carrying a few more pounds, but Jim claimed to like my fuller figure more than my slim build when we married. Ten years ago, he'd started hitting the gym, and while nobody would mistake him for a bodybuilder, he'd dropped some of the weight he'd put on, and what he hadn't lost, he'd turned into muscle.
I didn't know if he was telling me he liked my fuller breasts and rounder hips more than when we dated just to make me feel better about myself, but there was no doubt he was a serious stud-muffin now. Gone was the lanky kid I'd married, replaced by this walking beefcake that rarely failed to turn female heads.
I looked at him in the mirror as I brushed my brown hair. I had a few silver threads here and there, but not many, and the silver Jim was getting in his dark hair at the temples only made him sexier. I held his gaze for a moment before he smiled. When he smiled, the twenty-odd years of our marriage disappeared, and he was the same guy I married so long ago.
Thirty minutes after I stepped into the kitchen, I was hitching myself up into his truck. He shut the door behind me and crawled in under the wheel.
"So, where did you say we were going?" I asked as he backed out of the garage.
"I didn't."
"But it's someplace I have to dress up for?" I wheedled.
"For tonight, yes."
That was a strange answer, but I decided to let it slide. We rode along in companionable silence, our hands resting on the center console with fingers intertwined as he piloted the truck. As we began to leave the city, I looked around.
"Where are we going?"
"To dinner."
"Yeah, but
where
?" If you couldn't find it in Charlotte, you probably couldn't find it anywhere.
"It's a surprise. We have a couple hours, so you might as well get comfortable."
"Two hours... for dinner?"
He looked at me and smiled, but said nothing.
It wasn't long before I thought we were going to Greensboro, but as we bypassed that, I realized it had to be Raleigh. As we drove, we talked about our good times. Our first kiss, on our second date. The first time we slept together, after our tenth or eleventh date, neither of us able to remember for sure. How he'd left his job in Asheville once I landed a position in Charlotte, just so we could be together. Our marriage. Our first house. The birth of our kids, Molly and Drake.
As we spoke, a warmth filled me. Jim was a good man, a devoted husband and father. He'd sacrificed for his family without complaint, performing almost all the late-night feedings so I could sleep, sitting up with the kids when they were sick, doting on me when I was sick, and never asking for anything in return.
I gripped his hand, his return squeeze as he glanced at me and smiled telling me of his love better than words ever could. He exited the interstate and weaved through Raleigh before pulling into an apartment complex. It took me a moment to realize this was where Anna and I lived. I looked at him, my brow furrowed. He smiled and pointed ahead. I didn't know what he was pointing at until he pulled into a parking place beside a bright yellow VW Beetle.
