Author's note: This is the first story of what will become a series about the history of me and my wife. Originally this was written to her, and it differs from the others in its attention to romantic detail. This will be more appealing for the sentimental types, though follow-on stories will be more sexual in nature. Enjoy.
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I met my wife Tori while we were both in college. She was a year younger, and we met through a mutual friend who had dated Shane, one of my close friends. He had not been very attentive to Stacy, and I usually spent more time chatting with her than he did when we hung out in groups. We soon struck up a close but plutonic friendship. Stacy quickly figured out Shane was not long-term material, and they amicably split. Everyone remained friends, and not long afterward Stacy invited me to a group outing, promising it would be fun since I would be the only guy invited for a night of dancing, drinking, and cavorting. How do you refuse that? I sure as hell didn't.
I met up with Stacy at a large country bar, and she had several friends with her, including Tori, the only one I hadn't met before. I was immediately smitten: she was medium height (just under 5' 6") and quite svelte, no more than 105 lbs, with coltish grace and subtle curves. She was wearing tight fitting jeans and a designer black spaghetti strap blouse; the jeans fit her ass superbly and the bra she was wearing under the top was showing off some dynamite cleavage. I suspected her breasts were on the larger side of a B-cup, and they fit her frame perfectly. Her hair was straight, cut simple but with style, and looked pitch-black in the dim lighting of the bar (I later found out it was a dark, dark brown).
All of this I accepted in a glance, and when you see so many attributes on one body, the unbidden fear arises that the face will somehow disappoint. But I could not have been more wrong: despite the great expectations raised by her amazing body and sexy apparel, the exotic beauty of her face shamed my anticipation of disappointment. Her mouth sat above a dainty chin, sporting soft lips and topped with a pixie nose. Faint freckles dusted the tops of her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and the faint lines around her eyes on an otherwise flawless face denoted a habit of smiling that was both disarming and alluring. But the eyes themselves--slightly angled, darkened by eyeliner that contrasted starkly with the bright hazel of the irises, which also stood out against the darkness of her hair--stopped my breath and sent a rush of blood to my loins. They were striking, erotic, and sexual with an unrelenting smolder that kept me staring well beyond proper decorum. It was innocent beauty coupled with instinctual desirability. As I said, I was smitten.
And she, of course, was taken.
While her boyfriend was not present, Stacy noted my stare and pulled me aside. Wiping the drool off my chin, she smirked and told me, "Easy, Romeo, she isn't available...yet. I don't have much faith in her current relationship, but she is not the cheating type, and aggressively pursuing her right now would be a bad idea. Just play it cool. Here, I'll introduce you."
And so it went for the night. I danced with her a few times, chatting about nothing, enjoying her company while trying my hardest not to let her feel my erection during the slow songs. This girl was sexy, funny, and intelligent. I wanted nothing more than to put the moves on her, but Stacy's warning proved true, as Tori never once let on that she was interested, though she did make it clear that my company was welcome. Every other girl in the group knew I was devoted, but fortunately Tori never caught on, and while I did not see her again that Spring, I had made a fantastic impression which would play out very nicely a few months later.
Fast-forwarding to that moment...
Once again I was out en masse with my guy friends at a country-western bar (they can't be avoided when you go to school in Texas), and I was getting my drink on to deaden the pain of listening to the music you would expect to hear in such a place. Midway through my third beer a chorus of high-pitched catcalls and whistles announced the arrival of our pack of lady friends, and I turned to greet them. Stacy came shoving through the crowd toward me, wearing the same smirk from that Spring night last semester.
"Tori is here," she intoned with meaning.
Being an idiot, I did not catch on, and dumbly replied, "And...?"
"She's single." Stacy bit her lower lip and rapidly nocked her eyebrows a couple times. "You should definitely go ask her to dance..." her voice dropped and her eyes narrowed, "And she was asking if you'd be here tonight."
At that moment someone could have told me my clothes were on fire and I wouldn't have given a shit. I dropped my beer and started throwing my stupid guy friends out of the way, searching intently for the enigmatic and captivating girl whose memory had haunted me all summer. In the back of my mind, I wondered in my haste if perhaps I had embellished her beauty without reference to the original in so many months.
But then I saw her, and all doubt vanished. Her rich, dark hair was pulled back into a long ponytail that just reached her shoulders, and the luster of her skin against the form-fitting teal and black sundress she wore was as if her skin radiated light, exemplifying untarnished and energetic youth. Her eyes once again arrested my focus--she had used blue-green eyeshadow, drawing out the greener hazel of her eyes and matching the teal of her dress. It was edgy and vogue and sexy as hell.
She was standing with another girl, laughing at something, and her smile and laugh carried through the room like sunlight. I basked in it momentarily, but quickly noticed how many of my friends were, too. These men were my brothers, and later we would risk our lives for each other, but at that moment those wolfish motherfuckers were homing in on and sizing up for conquest what God surely intended was to be mine. I did not hesitate or show any sign of weakness; I knew this girl was for me! Coupled with Stacy's reassurance that Tori was asking for me, I walked right up to her with all the arrogance and confidence inherent to a cocksure 21-year old alpha male and asked her to dance before any of the other clowns could make an introduction.
The other girl (who had been present on that night months ago and knew the score) disappeared in a flash, and Tori continued to smile at me as her laughter waned. "Damon, right? I would love to."
Stacy had somehow instinctively known that the two of us belonged together, and she was 100% correct. The rest of the night Tori and I danced and laughed, and I could sense an intimacy growing this time around that had been missing the first night we met. Recollections of the summer and plans for the coming semester segued into meaningful personal questions and effortless banter that became a foundation for inside jokes when we rejoined the group to replenish our drinks. I found out her exotic features came from her Japanese grandmother, and though her grandfather and father had been full-blooded Caucasian, she retained that hint of ancestry completely removed from anything European. The hours flew by, and if one of the other guys had not gotten sick around midnight the two of us would probably have continued until last call.
The bar's management had not been impressed with the distance of Parker's projectile vomit (although most of us were), and we were politely but firmly asked to leave. Stacy winked at me and quickly took charge of the situation.
"Okay, ladies and gents, I'm sober and so is Padraig, so he will drive you four and I'll take Sick Boy and Beth and Megan. Tori, you go with Damon. Okay, people, let's go." She quickly herded the group out the door while I closed out my tab.