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Steven was an architect, who just happened to work with one of my old friends from university. He was one year older than me (which made him 29), owned a house and a totally sweet golden retriever. He was probably what most people would describe as average looking, but he had a bunch of characteristics which made him practically irresistible to me. He was tall - maybe 6'3" - with dark brown, almost black hair. He was built big, although he was not really overweight, but not a body builder either. Solid. His skin was considerably darker than mine, although being as pasty white as I am it's almost impossible not to be darker than me. He had a combination that makes me swoon every time - dark, dark hair, with impossibly luminescent blue eyes.
As you can probably tell, I was smitten. Badly.
We'd met the first time about a month before at a party at my friend's place. I'm pretty sure it was a set-up, since I was the only one in the house who didn't work with them. Not that I minded; I'd been single for a couple of years, and was still feeling somewhat guilty over my last, very ugly break-up. I was also getting pretty sick of going to weddings and parties without a date, or worse - with a gay guy friend. Who inevitably found some other cute gay guy there and disappeared within ten minutes. But that's another story.
The funny part is that I think Sharon was trying to set me up with this guy Richard, who was very classically good-looking, but not even close to my type. He started talking to me right away, and as I shortly found out, he was extremely self-important. Maybe he was just nervous, but within about five minutes I was ready to smack the guy. I'd heard all about his career, his money, his family, his plans, everything you could imagine - and he was still talking. I'm not convinced he even knew my name.
I went to the 'little girl's room' in an effort to escape, and after standing in there for ten minutes doing nothing, I managed to slip out through the living room, and out Sharon's back door. It was drizzling rain, so I figured no one would think to look for me there, and I'd get a few minutes to collect myself before having to face the lion's den again. I was wrong. There was a guy sitting outside, in the back-yard gazebo, who started guiltily when he saw me come outside. I hurried to the gazebo, and sat on the bench across from him, out of the rain.
"You must be Sarah." I nodded. "Sharon told me you would be here. Are you having fun?" I saw a mischievous glint in his eye, and realized he knew about the set-up.
"I'm having a fabulous time! Why else would I be sitting out here in the rain?" He laughed. "Who're you, anyway?"
Steven and I ended up talking all night, sitting outside in the rain. He admitted that he was also hiding outside, from a computer-geek co-worker who wanted him to play some playstation game with him. He asked me about my job, and before long he was laughing his ass off as I told 'war stories' from various shifts I had done in the emergency room. He told me about being an architect, about losing his parents when he was fifteen in a car accident. He was fascinated by me being a doctor - I don't really know why, it usually seems pretty mundane to me - but that night I was on fire, telling tales and sharing my passion about my job. He really brought out the best in me, I think, and by the end of the night, we were as comfortable together as old friends.
By the time I had to leave, the rain had picked up, and since he'd already asked for my number, I was getting prepared to dash out to my car. Instead, he borrowed Sharon's umbrella, and walked me out. As we stood by my car, with the driver's door open, he reached over and gently tugged on one of my curls, which was a tight ringlet due to the humidity. His touch felt good, and I instinctively leaned into his hand. Tracing my jaw with his fingers, he lifted up my chin, bent down, and kissed me. I don't think I can possibly describe the feeling - I guess the cliché about fireworks going off is about the closest I can get - and something similar must have happened for him, because as we drew apart, his eyes opened and his mouth hung open in surprise. I smiled, then hopped in my car and drove away, leaving him standing there with the umbrella, looking shocked. My hands were shaking, and two blocks later I had to pull over to get control over myself again. I'd never experienced anything like that kiss, and if I hadn't driven away I'm fairly sure I would have hopped in the sack with him that night, something I swore to myself I'd never do.
I once watched a movie called "Clueless", in which Alicia Silverstone waxed philosophical about something she called 'boy time'; and since I whole-heartedly believed everything I saw in movies, I didn't expect to hear from Steven for a week or so, if he called at all. So imagine my surprise when he called the next day. He asked me out for dinner.
We went to a nice, small, intimate Italian place he knew, and the owner there called him by name. When he got up to use the men's room, the owner (whose name was, predictably, Luigi) and his wife came over to say hello, and basically to snoop. After chatting for a minute or two, Luigi asked me straight out what my intentions were towards Steven. I must have looked shocked, or maybe confused, because they both laughed. They got up and went back to work before Steven returned to the table; he asked me what was wrong, but I just shook my head and passed it off. We had a wonderful Italian meal, and Steven got to laugh at me for my weird pickiness when it comes to food. I am allergic to mushrooms - and vomiting on a date looks really bad - and I despise seafood something fierce. So I had a nice chicken fettuccini alfredo, and Steven had some kind of seafood pasta dish. We shared a carafe of red wine. We laughed a lot and talked about anything that came to mind; again it was like we'd been friends forever. When we got up to leave, Steven helped me into my coat then took my hand. We thanked the owners, who told me in a stern voice that "Steven is very important to us and we wouldn't want to see him hurt." Luigi winked at me, and we all laughed at Steven who was blushing furiously.
Walking out to our cars hand-in-hand, I asked Steven about Luigi and his wife. It turned out he had lived next door to them after his parents died and he moved in with an aunt, and as they were childless, they had adopted him as their honorary son. I became retroactively nervous - he had just done the equivalent of introducing me to his parents!
At my car, we once again shared a mind-blowing kiss. And then one kiss turned into two, and then three and four. When we separated, I was panting to catch my breath, as was he. He pulled away with an obvious effort to restrain himself, but he caught my hand in his and kissed my fingertips.
"When can I see you again?" he asked. I considered my schedule, and realized that starting the next day I had four grueling night shifts in front of me. We decided to make plans for the fifth day, and he said he'd call me then to confirm and tell me where we were going. As he walked to his car, he let my hand go with reluctance, and I got in my car. My hands were trembling again, but I was able to drive home.
Despite having made our plans, Steven called me every day between the two dates. Just to say hi, he said. I loved it.
