The date ended with me driving us back to Robert’s house. I got out and walked with Robert to his door. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Robert hugged me goodbye, and leaned in and gave me a fantastic kiss. It was as if his lips had electricity. I went back in for a second, third, and fourth kiss and I only do that when I liked a guy a whole lot.
What the hell was I doing?
I’m not hurting anyone. One of the guys I liked had a spell on him and didn’t even know what he was probably doing. The other guy seemed to like me a whole lot for me for who I was as a person. I liked who he was as a person, too. Robert was very charismatic, all the while maintaining a gentleness that seemed incredibly humble.
Robert hugged me and held me in his arms a little longer than one should if they were hugging a friend. This was definitely a romantic hug. I hugged him back strongly. His body was both hard and soft. But it felt right, being in his arms. He smelled incredible.
“What are you wearing?” I asked.
“Guilty by Calvin Klein.”
“All I can say is yum.”
We released our hug and Robert said, “Would you like to go to dinner on Tuesday night?”
“What’s on Tuesday night?”
“Nothing. I just thought if you could put me on your schedule, you would be expecting me to come over to pick you up at the right time.”
“I get it. Get a commitment on the second date so you don’t have to wait around for an answer. And once again, I want to say I’m sorry for doing that to you.”
“It was my decision to stay,” Robert said. “And now, I’m glad I did.”
“Where would you like to go?” I asked.
“Do you like Italian food?”
“I love Italian food,” I said.
“Well, there is this really cute family restaurant over on Ball Street. It’s called...”
“Mama Cosa’s...I’ve been there, I love that place. You’re talking about the place that has all the celebrities on the wall.”
“Sure am.”
“That sounds awesome. Pick me up at 6:30 on Tuesday night. If you still want to go.”
“Of course I do. So, it’s a date,” Robert said.
“A third date?”
“Yes, I must say this second date has been a lot of fun.”
“Just fun?” I asked.
“Okay, it has been exhilarating spending time with you,” Robert said in a very genuine-sounding voice.
“Spending time with you has been romantically interesting.”
“I’ll take it,” Robert said, laughing. “So, I’ll pick you up in a little over seventy-two hours.”
“Sounds very Special Agenty.”
“I’m a little anal when it comes to time. Like, I know I have exactly forty-seven minutes to get to LAX so I can check-in just in time. It’s a timeframe I give myself. It seems like I never have anything to do after I check in, but forty-seven minutes is my goal.”
“Is that enough time?”
“Yeah, I already checked in online. I was being a bit dramatic. I have one hour and sixteen minutes until I board.”
“That’s a little bit scary,” I said. “Can you turn that off?”
“Of course I can turn it off. I used to be a big flake and the only way I beat it was by becoming super anal about time. I only turn it on when something is real important to me.”
“A plane trip is pretty important,” I said.
“That wasn’t what I was referring to.”
“You are so sweet. I’m horrible with time. Thus, I was ten minutes late picking you up.”
“You were twelve minutes late, but that’s beside the point...I am totally kidding. I knew you were late, but not twelve minutes on the dot. It was more like eleven minutes and forty-two seconds.”
“You need better time management.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Believe it or not, one of my jobs in college was to go to high schools and teach high school students how to budget and manage their time. I can give you a couple of tricks Tuesday night that I know will make a huge difference if you follow the plan right. It’s how I finished college.”
“Thanks. Well, you better go,” I said, “I don’t want to make you late for your flight. I don’t think I could live with myself if that happened,” I said half-kidding. I did a little wave goodbye and I turned around and walked to my car. “Hey,” I said and turned around.
Robert looked at me.
“Have a safe flight,” I said. “Also, be safe driving to the airport. Let’s just say be safe.”
“I will,” Robert said. He looked pleased that I cared enough to say ‘be safe.’ three times.
Then I did something that surprised even me. It might be the first time I had ever done it. I blew Robert a kiss.
Robert didn’t know how to take it. So, he did this goofy thing where he pretended to catch it. Then he blew a kiss at me.
“See you in seventy-two hours,” I said.
“Now who has the OCD?” Robert yelled.
I looked back and gave Robert a big smile. He was a cool guy.
I opened the driver’s door and I sat down and checked my mirror. My car still smelled like Robert’s cologne. I liked that. I looked over at Robert’s door and he was waiting for me to drive off. He was a true gentleman. I had a great date. He was now three for three. If we had a great date on a next date, Robert would be in very fine company. Only Johnny Redville, my senior year boyfriend, and Curtis Smart, my freshman year in college boyfriend, had ever made the list.
Unfortunately, Johnny only had three good dates in him. But Curtis got it up to six. He was an extremely seasoned dater. He always knew what to do. He always knew how to act. Most importantly, he knew exactly how physical to be without scaring me away. Yeah, he was probably the one that got away. But now, he was married to some woman from Chino Valley and the last time I heard, he was up to six kids.
We were worlds apart now. I was still watching season two of Gossip Girl and he was carpooling and changing diapers.
But when Curtis was at the end of his life, he was going have six kids by his side and that was a beautiful thought. Not the dying part, but being such a great father that you have six adults who loved you so much that they would stop everything they were doing to be by your side. I knew he was a great father. He was a great human being. It was odd how I could both pity and envy him for the same thing in the same moment. That was me. Never defined. Never understood. But a heart just waiting to be loved.
Chapter Twenty-four