I paced nervously back and forth waiting for Josh to arrive. It was pouring buckets and had been all day, I was afraid that something may have happened to delay him. Everything was in place, Dustin was gone for the next few days, I'd taken the time off of work ... I looked around just to make sure everything was perfect when I heard a car in the drive. My belly did flips as I saw him exit the driver's side. He grabbed a bag from the back seat and then sprinted to the door, the hood on his jacket protectively pulled over the "curls." When he had made it under the awning he looked up and not expecting to see me standing there anxiously he jumped.
"You scared me." He said and then laughed. I smiled. I'm sure the sight of me would scare anyone, even Bigfoot! I didn't know what to say, my mind was a whirling torrent of words and phrases I had practiced for hours in front of the mirror while waiting but now as he stands there I am in awe. For the record I'm never dumbstruck, I can always think of something to say even if it's something totally retarded – not this time. The cat had gotten my tongue for sure!! "Umm ..." Josh said after a moment. "Can we go in?"
"Oh my God!" I said slapping myself on the forehead and pushing the door open behind me. "Of course!" We went inside and he dropped his bag on the floor and unzipped the soaked jacket he was wearing. He flipped the hood down and it was as if it were straight out of a cartoon – I stared in reverence of the curls as they literally swirled around his head and glowed brightly. I sighed and it must have been out loud because Josh just laughed at me. I looked down at his face and he waved his hand in front of me.
"Hello?" I laughed then. "Jeez, when a man meets a woman with umm ... huge 'tracks of land' shall we say – he usually stares at them. Why is it when people meet me they stare at my head?" I made a face.
"I think you know why." He nodded.
"Yeah. I'll have to adopt the motto 'Eyes down here!'" I giggled ostentatiously. He is funny. I like funny. I took his coat from him. I had a sudden urge to press it to my face and inhale deeply but I just hung it up on the hook behind the door instead then turned back to him. He stood with his hands tucked nervously into the back pockets of his jeans. "So I suppose introductions are in order?" He asked. I blushed. I BLUSHED! Heh heh ...
"I'm Terri." I said and then said 'duh' in my head! I stuck my hand out for him to shake and he pulled me into his arms for a hug instead. Holy crap, I wrapped my arms around him and discovered just how delicate a frame he had. I could probably squeeze and break every one of his ribs. But he felt so good under my arms that I didn't want to let go. Eventually I did. He slipped off his shoes and I grabbed his large hand. My hand felt so tiny engulfed in his. "I'll give you the ten cent tour." I said and dragged him around the townhouse explaining everything. "The kitchen." I said stupidly, as if he couldn't have figured that out, the stove was a dead giveaway! He just nodded politely at everything and then laughed when I showed him my computer.
"Good grief!" He said as he saw all the pics I had so carefully printed then cut out and stuck all over. "Don't you get sick staring at that all day?" I laughed, as if!
"Not a chance." I said.
"When I get home I'm going to put pictures of you on my computer and see what happens." I frowned.
"Don't you dare. You'll never eat again."
"Ha!" He said.
Well after the 'tour' we sat on the couch and talked for a while. You know sometimes when people first meet there are these awkward silences but when you get two people in a room who like to talk like Josh and I ... well there were no silences, only jabbering. Now he's an American, I'm an American but there were times when he talked so fast I could barely understood what he said and at first, too embarrassed to ask him to repeat I just missed what he'd said but after a while I came right out and told him to slow down so I could understand what he was saying. He just laughed at me. As time passed I realized I was hungry – I hadn't eaten all day due to the anticipation of his arrival but now that he was here and we were chatting comfortably I told him that I'd love to take him to this wonderful little Italian restaurant in town called Gabriel's. He said he was starving too so we got our shoes on and left. Gabriel's isn't a far drive – maybe 5 minutes so we were there in no time. After we'd been seated and looked at the menu Josh says to me; "Watch this, I'm going to order in Italian." And then he winked. I smiled knowing that the waitress wouldn't understand a word he said but I watched eagerly as she made her way back and asked if she could take our order. So Josh says; "Lo gnocchi con bolognese per entrambi noi soddisfa." And the waitress just stares at him blankly.
"Umm, wait right here." She says and rushes back to the kitchen. Moments later the owner, a slight woman by the name of Gabriella (how fitting, eh?) comes back to the table. I know her, she's the owner and a very nice person. She approaches the table and starts to speak to Josh.
"Signore! Quanto meraviglioso che parlate italiano. Provengo dall'Italia io stesso. Grazie per venire al mio ristorante, voi ha confuso il waitress parlando in mia lingua ma ora parlerò voi." Confused, Josh just stares at her. She spoke faster than he ever did and in Italian no less. I began to giggle then and he glanced at me quickly then back up at her as she continued on her rant in Italian. I stepped on his foot under the table and he sighed at me.
"Signora!" He said trying to interrupt her tirade. "Signora! Prego, non parlo italiano così come voi. Rallentano o parlano l'inglese!" She ignored him and went on and on. This brought on another giggling spell and my stomach began to hurt from laughing. Josh turned to me and I could see his cheeks were bright pink. "What are you laughing at?" He said under his breath and I covered my mouth and laughed harder. "La signora, tutta che desideri è lo gnocchi con bolognese per entrambi noi soddisfa. And a bottle of Chianti." He said with a sigh.
"Coming right up." She said in English and walked away. That's my Gabriella! I laughed again and Josh glared at me.
"Very funny." He said. "You did that on purpose." I shook my head and wiped at my damp eyes.
"I did not, I swear!" He nodded.
"Mmhmm." He said not believing. I glanced at him and he growled and so every time I looked at him during dinner I well up in giggles. After a while he laughed too. "Wow, that was a little embarrassing." He'd said once he'd gotten over the humility of it. He tried to get me to admit I'd set him up but I didn't – Gabriella is just like that. Dinner was fantastic and Josh and I polished off the bottle of Chianti. When we went to pay the waitress said that it was compliments of Gabriella and Josh was going to insist that he pay when Gabriella came out of the kitchen and shooed him out the door in Italian. This brought on another round of giggles and he and I laughed all the way back to the townhouse. When we had stripped ourselves of our shoes and coats we flopped down on the couch lazily.
"What should we do now?" He asked and then eyed me. Heh heh heh ... what do you think I said? Let's FUCK?? Of course I didn't but I thought it!
"Want to watch a movie?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"Sure." He said. So I put on a movie but before it began we both changed into more comfy clothes, I put on my kitty cat pajama pants and a tee shirt and he put on a pair of sweats. I grabbed a very soft blanket from the closet and we sat on the couch to watch the movie. Halfway into the movie he laid down with his head in my lap. I lightly stroked his hair as we watched; playing with the springy curls, pulling them straight and then letting them go and watching them coil back up tightly against his scalp. It had been some time since he'd moved and I was almost positive he was sleeping. Leaning over I looked at him. His eyeballs looked upward into mine. "Yes?" He said. I smiled.
"Just checking to see if you were sleeping." I said.
"I almost was." He said. "That feels nice." I sat back and continued to play. Who cares what else happened in the world – I could sit there forever just playing with his soft hair. A couple of my cats, Snowball and Midnight came to investigate this new creature that had invaded their lair and after filling their senses with his scent and noting he wasn't a threat they curled up, one on his hip and the other between his feet. He thought this was quite cute and explained though he was a dog lover but he adored cats too. I was glad to hear that being as I have 5 of them! After the movie was over he reluctantly left my lap and held his hands out to me. I took them and he pulled me up off the couch. "Bed time." He said leading me towards the stairs. That's when I began to sweat! Now I am not afraid of sex – I love it! (who doesn't?) But Josh ... wow! He's hot and sexy! YIKES! Silently we went upstairs and he grabbed his bag that was in the hallway and headed for Dustin's room.
"Hey!" I said halting him. "Where are you going?"
"I was going to sleep in Dustin's room tonight." I shook my head.
"Oh no, there's no reason for that."
