"Whew!" my boyfriend sighs out loud. "That's the last of them."
Glancing up at Jeremy, equally impressed and shocked that he was able to bring up those last couple boxes all by himself, my smile beams with pride. However, it transforms quickly upon seeing his shirt that cling to his body, drenched with sweat, and a sickly pale look on his face as continues struggling to catch his breath, panting as though he just ran a marathon.
My concern for him only grew seeing him hunched over in pain since Jeremy, to put it delicately, wasn't the fittest of individuals. By no means was he overweight either--actually he was quite the opposite. His frail thin body matching my 5'7" height looked like it would be sent flying by a stiff breeze topped with a bed of wild unkempt curly brown hair and brown eyes. People always claimed how your soulmate is the most attractive person in the world and nobody could ever compare no matter the age but yet, he never quite ticked that box for me. I mean we're still together after all this time so clearly that's just another lie we're told to believe when we're little girls about true love and prince charming showing up on your doorstep, waiting to sweep you off your feet to live some fairytale life. The way I see it--it's what inside that counts... right?
In college, we met when an ex-mutual friend--emphasis on the "ex" part--orchestrated a meeting by manipulating us both to thrust us into a blind date that I had no choice but to attend. Upon meeting, I didn't like him much at first but after guilt tripping me I agreed to another date, for our friend's benefit. What started as one date became two became three etc. etc.
Being so busy in college and not really wanting to go through another painful dating experience, as my past relationship in high school was with some stupid jock that just wanted to have sex with me, parade me around, and brag about bagging some chic to his friends, I settled with him because he at least seemed to care more about an actual relationship which drew me towards him.
Over the years, he's been kind and treated me well, but of course, everyone has their issues. One thing that used to bug me was his lack of initiative, especially in life. It got on my nerves because I've busted my butt all my life to get where I am. I had spent a long time finding the best pharmaceutical company to intern at in college, paying off in the long run with a job straight out of college with them. On the flip side, he kinda floated through college with a bunch of part-time gigs, never sticking with one for more than a couple of months, unperturbed if he got fired or what the future held.
After many weeks of persuasion and hours of applications together, he finally landed a real full-time job in the city, doing some marketing gig at a company. It took a bit, but hey, better late than never, right? I just hope now he'll begin to step up from the responsibility of a full-time job.
Once we were both full-fledged working-class adults, the urge for freedom hit hard. After much deliberation, he convinced me to go all-in on a place he found for us. We pooled together every bit of savings we had to snag a gorgeous apartment with a beautiful view of the city. Luckily, my internship money from college covered most of the initial fees and moving expenses. Since Jeremy was just getting started with his job and had pretty much spent all his money, I took on the rent responsibilities--at least for the first couple of months. It seemed fair since I had a bit more saved up and he worked really hard to find this place.
I thought by taking the brunt of it, even if it was a bit lopsided in the beginning, we could spend more time together and focus on strengthening our relationship. But, he still never seemed to care about any passions of mine which always made me sad. I always wished he would just appreciate me more and the things I did for him. My friends had nagged me about it and in the back of my mind, I always felt like there was something missing from our relationship, but I could never put my finger on what it was. At this point though I just assumed all relationships ended up like this since most parents I knew were unhappy and divorced.
"Don't worry honey." I couldn't help but cringe a bit inside whenever he called me that. It always made me feel like I should be some decrypted corpse knitting some tapestry instead of a youthful 24-year-old. "Just give me a month, and soon enough, I'll be swimming in so many clients and cash. I'll take you out for the fanciest night out on the town--the nicest restaurant in the whole city--I'll even chip in more for this rent!" He says full of optimism with a large grin.
He was always the one to talk big, filled with grand goals and aspirations during our entire relationship. However, more often than not, his grandiose plans rarely, if ever, managed to come true. At this point I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that, for once in his life, this isn't one of those since renting this apartment pretty much on your own isn't the cheapest especially, when I just started working last year.
Time flew by as we began to slowly unpack boxes and build furniture. Feeling bored and wanting to celebrate our own space as our first step as an adult, a wild idea pops into my head. Curious to how Jeremy will react, I turn, saying innocently, "Hey, Jer."
He looks up from his area in the living room "What's up?"
Giving him a sly smirk, I pull out one of the bedsheets from the box labeled BEDROOM and hold it up in front of me.
"How do you want to celebrate our new place and our first real taste of freedom?"
He scratches the back of his head thinking hard before shrugging, "I didn't really have anything planned. Are you hungry? Was there a place you wanted to try out for food?"
God, I wanted to bash my head against a wall with how dense he was sometimes. No matter how long we had been dating for, stuff really just never clicked in his head. Ok, let's try to be a bit more direct. Maybe that will work?
"No, I mean later tonight would you like to have some fun after we finish unpacking?" Playfully waving the sheet I was holding in front of me, hoping now he'll take the hint.
He flashed me a smirk, and I couldn't help but feel a surge of giddiness--the satisfaction of finally getting through to him. "Ohhhhhh, you want to go to an arcade or something like that after we finish unpacking."
I had to bite my lip, feeling the frustration welling up inside me like a pot about to boil over. Taking a deep breath to cool myself down a bit, I shoot him a smile, doing my best to hide the annoyance bubbling under the surface. "No Jer, I meant fun in here." I say with a mischievous wink. Hoping my not-so-subtle way of asking for sex can't fly over his head this time... right?
He tilted his head a bit while thinking out loud "Fun? Fun? Like a game? Like a board game? Like that kind of fun?"
I can feel my patience wearing thin as I am about ready to yell at him for how dense he is. Sometimes I just want to drop kick him out the window cause god forbid he ever take a hint or initiate anything.
"NO JER, FUN AS IN..." I let out before being cut short by the sound of the doorbell.
"Hmm wonder who it is?" He says, completely oblivious to my anger with how idiotic he is. Getting up casually, he smiles as he passes me on his way to the door.
