Know You
What does falling in love look like? Does love at first sight exist? Does it get all hazy and everyone else in the room disappears when you first lay eyes on them? Is Ryan Gosling there? Admittedly, I’ve never seen The Notebook, but I have seen other romance movies/rom-coms (Sleepless in Seattle is a favorite). I’ve never believed in love at first sight unless you count me picking out my dog. The only thing that’s comparable, is my last relationship.
It’s really hard to glean all of that from a first date. I don’t think it was love at first sight but it definitely gave me tingles, made my brain foggy and time seemed to stand still.
The best way I can describe it, is through the song “Know You” by Dreamer Boy.
“After dark, we closed the bar. I lost my phone inside your car. You don’t know me, we met tonight. But I was saying things you like. Oh, I don’t know you but I want to…”
As my more recent adventures have started, this one also began on Tinder. We talked for about a week then decided to meet up at a cider bar in North Park. I was late because I stabbed myself in the eye with a mascara wand and my setting powder kept making me cry (it was scented and irritating the fuck out of my eyes). To make matters worse, in my haste to leave my house — I ordered a Shared Lyft on accident.
I arrived at 5:30 pm ish, walked into the cider bar and promptly tried to turn around because there he was: tall, dark haired, blue eyed and dimpled. There was no way it could work, he was out of my league. He stood up and said “Hey, Nickole. Glad you made it.” My mind just said “Shit! I’ve been spotted. Ok, I guess I’ll stay. Fuck.” I finally relaxed after he made it apparent that I looked uncomfortable. Hell yes, I was uncomfortable. I was having an allergic reaction to my makeup, running late and thought he was far too hot to want to date me.
But, because you can never admit anything like that —I just said I was cold. It was June. We talked for hours and before we knew it, the sun had gone down. Unfortunately, I had to work at 4 am. Walking out of the bar, I was prepared to say “Goodbye” forever and order my Lyft when he said: “Can I take you home?”. With a nervous tremble in my voice I said “Su…su…sure! You don’t mind?”.
I found out he’s that one friend who says “Just move it over” when transporting passengers. His car was pretty grimy. There were spiders attached to it. Once in the car after helping me in, he leaned over and said “I forgot how dirty my car is. I just wanted to spend more time with you”. Queue the dreamy, hazy sequence.
Despite staring at the big ass spider attached to his passenger sideview mirror on the car ride home, it was perfect. We laughed. Conversation felt natural. His dimpled smile permeated my soul. I wanted to see that smile again. I convinced myself that he was just being nice. But sitting in the parking lot of my complex, he leaned over and said “Can I kiss you and can we go out again?”. My brain rejoiced like a black choir in a Tyler Perry movie. I was shouting down the aisles and doing deacon backslides mentally. But my mouth said calmly: “I’d like that”.
“Hoping everything go right…hoping everything go right…”
Photo by Christophe Dion on Unsplash