At 6:50 I was standing in front of Barnes & Noble waiting for Eric to get there. I was nervous as hell. What if he doesn’t show? What if he does, but then backs down?
I had never been this nervous on a date before, but then I’d never been on a date with another guy. I’d been on dates with women before, and had had sex with other guys, but never dated. Add to that the fact that Eric was a pretty good friend of mine as well as someone I was very attracted to. It was almost too much.
Only 6:54, time is moving way too slow. Why did I have to get here so early. Of course if I hadn’t tried to get here early I would have been very late, the subway doesn’t run on my schedule.
My watch seemed to be mocking me for my impatience it was only 6:57. I smiled and spoke briefly to people I recognized going by. Why couldn’t Eric have been early for once in his life.
Finally 7:00, took long enough, I must have been out here for like 25 minutes - well 11 minutes really but I swear that time was intentionally moving slower so it was like 25 minutes.
It was 7:02 and panic started to set in, a thousand thoughts running through my mind. “He’s not coming.” “He changed his mind.” “ I pushed him too far this morning.” “He’s going to tell everyone about me.” “Maybe he’s just running late, he usually is.”
Sanity finally took hold, “Calm down, just stop and think, if he’s not here in a minute give him a call, something may have come up. Regardless of what happens panic won’t help.”
Easy for the rational part of my mind to say, while the rest of me was freaking out. Fortunately, I saw Eric heading up the sidewalk towards me.
“You’re 5 minutes late, do you have any idea what you put me through.”
He just gave me that sheepish grin of his, who could stay mad at someone like him for very long. Not that I was mad, mostly relieved that he showed.
“So where do you want to go eat?” I asked him, that kind of details are important.
“Hmmm... How about we head over to Harvard Square.”
“Ok sounds good to me.” So we started walking towards the steps to take us down to catch the T again outbound.
Unfortunately it being dinnertime the T was packed. But that’s ok, Eric and I at least found a spot on the train where we could stand close together and out of the way.
We just chatted the whole trip. When we finally got to Harvard Square we decided on some Chinese food for dinner. It was a great dinner, the food wasn’t bad either. We could just talk to each other. To anyone else nearby we seemed to be just good friends chatting over dinner. Between the two of us though it was like we were weaving a web of intimacy between us.
After dinner, we headed out to go catch a movie. Even with the long lines outside we were still in the movie pretty quickly. We had chosen a movie, which apparently wasn’t as popular as some of the others, and we had managed to get seats somewhat out of the way with no one else near us.
As soon as the lights dimmed Eric surprised me by reaching over and grabbing hold of my hand. We sat like that through the whole movie. It was fantastic, just being close to him holding his hand - a gentle intimate contact.
I wish we could have stayed like that forever, but of course the movie ended so we left and headed out to catch the T again. This time the T was much emptier than earlier and we even got a bench so we could continue to sit together. The benches on the T aren’t very large normally that makes it seem more crowded, but I didn’t mind a bit having to sit closer to Eric.
“So what do you want to do now.” I asked him, hoping that involved both of us together.
“I don’t know, what do you want to do.”
“We could always go back to my place and watch some TV.”
“OK.” I had cable at my apartment, which he didn’t have in his dorm so I had a lot better selection there than he had.
We arrived back at my apartment. “Something to drink?”
“OK.”
I returned back to the living room with two sodas, to find Eric stretched out on the couch. I set his drink down and moved towards the chair when he says: “Come lay down over here with me.”
I was all for it except for one thing, I was two inches taller than him. “That sounds good to me, except for one thing, I’m two inches taller than you, if I sit in front you can’t see the TV.”
“Oh good point.” So he stood up and let me stretch out on the sofa before lying down beside me. I slid my arm around him and heard no complaints from him, so I hugged him to me tightly. I was after all taking it slow at his request don’t want to scare him off.
We talked for a very long time that night, nothing major just talk. Occasionally getting quiet to listen to the TV. It was during one of these quiet moments that I realized Eric had fallen asleep in my arms.
I was comfortable and apparently so was he so I cut the TV off, hugged him up against me and went to sleep. I don’t think I’ve ever slept more soundly than I did that night just holding him against me. No dreams this night though.
When I awoke, the sun was shining in through the window, I should’ve shut the shades last night, but I didn’t know it would be a problem until after I’d gone to sleep with Eric - and there was no way I was getting up then. It wasn’t until a few minutes after waking up that I realized that Eric was already awake.
“Good morning.” It truly was a good morning, of course any morning waking up with Eric would be.
“Good morning yourself, sleep well?”
“What do you think. How long have you been awake?”
