Monday, August 19th, 2013
"Good morning," Cece said as she slid into the passenger seat of my car and leaned over the center console to give me a kiss.
"Morning, babe."
She smiled, her eyes sparkling. "Oh, I'm babe now, am I?"
"If you want," I said, shrugging. "It just slipped out. I can come up with something else if you don't like babe." I shifted into drive and started off towards the gym.
"No, babe is good. I was just surprised. I think that's the first time you've done the pet name thing. It's cute, I like it."
"Are you sure? I can always come up with something more...unique."
"Oh really?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "Like what?"
I pursed my lips and made like I was thinking hard on the question for a few moments. "How about...snuggle muffin?"
Her laughter filled the car. "Seriously, Ryan? Snuggle muffin?"
"No good? Okay, how about cutesypoo?"
"You're getting worse!" she said, laughing even harder.
"Honeybun? Gumdrop? Doodlebutt?"
"Stop, my abs are going to get sore from laughing too hard!" She playfully swatted my arm. "I think we're good with 'babe' for now."
"For now? Okay, I'll keep workshopping."
"I didn't realize that you were such a dork," my girlfriend said.
"Oh no, my secret's out."
"It's cute." She reached over and put her hand on my thigh and gave it a light squeeze. "You're cute."
"Cute? Argh!" I clutched at my heart like I was wounded.
She smacked me again. "You are cute. But you're also handsome, and sexy. They aren't mutually exclusive."
"You think I'm sexy, huh?" I waggled my eyebrows at her.
"Duh. Do you think
I'm
sexy?" she asked.
"Of course I do. You're sexy, beautiful, gorgeous, breathtaking," I said, then I gave her a wink. "And cute."
She rewarded my answer with a kiss on the cheek.
Once we parked at the gym and started walking towards the entrance, Cece was extra affectionate. She slipped her hand into mine, lacing our fingers together, and was pressed up against my side as we made our way over to Paul.
"Well don't you two look very couple-y this morning," he said, grinning like an idiot.
"I assume he told you," Cece said to Paul.
"Told me what?" he asked.
"We're official now."
Paul fist pumped and then raised his hand to give me a high five. "Yes! Finally. I'm happy for you two."
"Thanks," we both said in unison.
"Now that you're together, you can't say no to coming over to our house for dinner sometime."
I laughed. "Sure, we'll figure something out."
"Excellent. Jackie is going to be thrilled."
We went inside to do our workouts, and Paul immediately started grilling me for details about how everything had gone down, so I told him about our date on Friday, our conversation and me asking her out on Saturday, and even about the drama with Melissa kissing me at the baseball game. He reiterated how happy he was that Cece and I were officially together, and how excited he was for us to do couples stuff with him and Jackie. I still had plenty of things I wanted to do with just me and Cece, but it would probably be fun to hang out with the two of them sometimes. Paul had been a good friend to me since I'd been here, and Jackie seemed like a great woman.
After we finished working out, we hit the showers and I changed to get ready for work. I said goodbye to Paul, promising that Cece and I would find a night that worked for us to join him and Jackie for dinner. When I went to meet my girlfriend in the lobby, she was in full Ice Queen mode as a guy did his best to chat her up. Her chilly façade melted when she saw me, though.
"Ready to go, babe?" I asked her.
"Ready," she said, pulling me down for a kiss that was perhaps a bit more enthusiastic than necessary for a public place. The guy took the hint and slinked off without another word. She slid her hand into mine and we started our walk back to my car.
"Sorry about that," she said, once we were outside.
"About what?"
"That guy. He just couldn't take a hint."
"It's fine. Honestly, any excuse for you to kiss me like that is okay in my book," I said, giving her an exaggerated wink.
"Does it bother you, when guys hit on me like that?" she asked.
"Bother me? Not really. If anything I'm just annoyed on your behalf. I know that you don't like it, and how frustrating it can be when they don't respect you enough to just take a no as a no, but it's not like I'm overcome with a jealous rage when I see another guy talking to you. I don't feel like I have anything to worry about."
"You don't."
"Why do you ask?"
"I was just curious. I know that guys can feel a bit possessive."
I unlocked my car and we both got in.
"Do you want me to be more bothered by something like that? I mean, there'd certainly be a line at which I'd get my hackles up over a guy making a move on you, but that right there wasn't it."
"No, I like that you're confident, both in yourself and in us. And that you're not hypocritical. A lot of guys can complain about their girlfriends being jealous but then turn around and be even worse."
I nodded. "I think a lot of times that's just projection. I knew plenty of guys on the football team who would cheat on their girlfriends at any given opportunity, so of course they suspected that their girlfriends would do the same and treated any interaction they had with another dude as a threat."
"Changing subjects, but I was wondering if you thought I should introduce myself to your mom at work, or if you wanted to do that another way."
"Oh, I totally forgot to tell you. She called me yesterday. Beth's mom told her that I had a new girlfriend, so she had to give me the interrogation. I told her that you work at Eastwood. She told me to warn you that she might come up to introduce herself. Also she wants us to come over for dinner sometime."
"I guess we're moving pretty quickly into the 'Meet the Parents' stage of things," she said.
"Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. You work with my mom, so you were always going to at least cross paths, and since you live with your dad I was going to have to meet him unless I just never went over to your place. I guess it will just make things easier to get it out of the way. It would be different if we lived in another city or state from our parents."
"That's true. Well, then I guess we'll both be looking out for the other. Are you still good with coming over for dinner tomorrow night so you can meet my dad?" Cece asked.
"Yeah, and then dance lessons?"
"Yup. Do you have any special requests for dinner? I'm going to go to the store after work today."
