That's how he got me. With those four little words. Such a cheesy line.
"I like your shoes."
I'm not usually one to give a crap about the opinions of others. Especially when it comes to how I dress. But I
loved
those shoes. Black leather flats with metal studded straps over the toes. They were adorable and sexy and so damn comfy.
I met Jason at a local meetup for those with an interest in philosophy. The area was quite conservative. I hated it. This was a place to discuss and explore different ideas. I was new and everyone else already knew one another.
He invited me for drinks at this little gastro pub. He was older and I think he was trying to seem
hip
, as the kids say. His hair was grown out a bit and he clearly worked out. Not too bulky, but he had a good definition. He made eye contact, he asked questions, he asked follow up questions. He seemed to genuinely care.
I was also leaving the area in a few weeks and bored out of my mind. Drinks with him were fun. And calm. I didn't worry about the stuff I did with guys my age. Jason relaxed me while exciting me in a different way. I hadn't slept with anyone since my heart had been shattered. All I wanted was calm.
He actually enjoyed my stories. It'd been a while since he'd had much adventure of his own. He'd gotten divorced and slipped into a depression. Slowly crawling his way out of it with the help of medication. Medication that also caused some trouble downstairs. (His words, not mine.) He said he hadn't minded at the time. He'd dated for a bit, about six months ago. She'd been very aggressive, and he wasn't ready for it then. We didn't talk about that over drinks. Not then.
He invited me back to his place. Two rescue pugs greeted us, and I nearly forgot I was an adult human as I squealed and played with the pups. He just watched me. And he let me be. That was something I really adored about him. I never felt as though I needed to be anyone or anything else. I was unabashedly me, for the first time in too long that was true.
We watched the final episode of Futurama. Well, final at the time. The one where Fry fucks up the time travel device and he and Leela spend a lifetime together with everything else frozen. We spent the better part of the evening discussing time travel and how really Fry and Leela were stuck in an infinite loop of re-experiencing that lifetime together. That didn't sound so terrible to me. Lifetime after lifetime with someone you love, where all you do is travel and fuck.
I could get on board with that.
Neither of us made a move that night. I needed to get going anyway. I was running late for a favor I was supposed to be doing for someone. That bit isn't important outside of me choosing me for a change. He asked to hang out again. Those were his words,
hang out again.
"Sure," I said. I'd had fun after all. I wasn't sure he wanted anything other than someone to hang out with. That was at least partially what I wanted too.
The next week we went on a sort of date. We went to a little pizza joint first. I wore those shoes we both admired again. Then he gave me a blue marble. It had snowed recently, and the roads and trails were still a bit slushy. He knew what a fan of Carl Sagan's I was, and he was going to show me his grave. It took a little finding, but we made it. You could see piles of blue marbles all around it. The snow had melted a bit, but they were still all frozen together. It was weirdly, cosmically beautiful. Pristine white snow strewn with blue marbles in, on, and under the snow. The shoes had been a bad idea.
We ended up back at his place. He had a hot tub in a little closed off porch area. He told me he, as well as several others from the philosophy meetup, were nudists in their free time. He thought that was a bit of a joke. "Not bad, for a dad joke," I'd teased him. He took it on the chin. Adorably so.
They had nude dinners, nude game nights, and would often end up in the hot tub, drinking, relaxing, calmly. I'd never done anything like that, and I made him promise he'd invite me to their next naked meetup. Laughing, he eagerly agreed.
We ended up watching Jurassic Park, cuddled up together. His dogs curled up around me as I rested my head on his chest. He later told me he enjoyed that almost as much as anything. Just being together, comfortably, existing in happiness. The movie ended and I was getting ready to head home. I made him again promise to invite me next time for the nude festivities.
"Well, you could always try it now? I'll behave, I swear! Unless you don't want me to." He winked at me and I wrinkled my nose. I hate when people wink at me. I don't know why; it just bothers me. "No pressure. Just thought I'd offer. Best to dip your toe in first and all that."
"I don't know. I mean, I want to! It's just...."
"I'll go inside. You can undress out here then hop in. Yell when you're done, and I'll come out and join you."
I thought about it for maybe ten seconds before I started to get giddy about it. I love being in any body of water, and this was going to be a first for me. I was in my early 20's and came from a very conservative background. I knew there was a freak inside of me, but letting that monster out was a slow process. One Jason was very happy to help with.