One time some years ago I was standing around and this guy came up to me, introduced himself and said he was going to marry me. I said the hell you are, but the hell he did.
Some stuff went on in between, but that's how it happened. What "stuff"? Well, like anytime we would cross paths he'd point his finger at me, pistol fashion, and say, "Gonna marry you!" and I'd say, "Dream on, sport!" Or something like that. If he was with some other guys and I passed by, he'd point me out to them and declare that I was his future wife. And they would tell him something like "Right, like that's ever gonna happen. She's out of your league, Poindexter."
But he never stopped. There he always was, standing proud, talking loud, drawing a crowd. And yet... You know what? During all this time, he never asked me out, never so much as offered to buy me a cup of coffee. After a while it got to me, bugged me. Annoyed me. Got under my skin.
So one day when we passed by each other and he gave me the pistol finger and said he was going to marry me, I stopped him and said, look, kimo sabe, how do you think you are going to manage to marry me if you never actually do anything to make that happen?
Do like what, he asked and I said, I don't know...ask me on a date or something. And he said, okay, how about a date with me? And I almost -- almost -- said no. I hesitated and he said it's your idea. So I was trapped. I'd trapped myself. Or he got me to trap myself. So I said yes. And the whole situation seemed so funny to me that I laughed. And he grinned.
And.... Well, I've been thinking about all that ensued, remembering a lot of stuff. I'm not ready to write about it now. Maybe later. Maybe not. But that little episode tells you a lot about what kind of a guy he was. If he wanted something, he went after it and got it. From the moment he set his cap for me, I had no chance.
In later days, I asked him why me? He just said that from the first moment he saw me, he knew that I was the girl he had wanted all his life. Everything faded away but me. That could have just been a line, but when he said it, I sensed sincerity. Maybe I wanted to sense sincerity, wanted to believe something like that could be true. But, based on our life together forward from those days, I think it was really true.
And for me? It wasn't like that. I was reluctant, resistant. I didn't want to fall in love. With him. With anybody. I had my reasons. I've alluded to them in a previous post or two. But he overcame all my defenses. Maybe I let him. Maybe I wanted him to. I could have just blown him off. Walked away. But I didn't.
I guess I should write about how my feelings for him grew but I think I will leave it at this, at least for now.
