The Encounter

You know how they say that “when you just know, you know”? I sort of hate to say it but not really, we are that couple… We’ve known each other for years, we met at work. And somehow, whenever we wanted to be together, it was never the right time. When he was single, I wasn’t. When I was single, he wasn’t. And it wasn’t until we both were available, that I built the courage to ask him out, when he had already given up the idea of chasing after me. He basically said, you let me know when you’re ready. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready until I was. We are 10 years apart in age, we had gone through different life experiences, relationships prior to us and I definitely was not ready to settle after leaving a long-term relationship. I wanted to go out, I wanted to dance, I wanted to get home at 5 a.m. and feel super cool because I made it to work regardless of sweating my butt off the night before at a club in Wynwood. About a couple of months prior to asking him out, I felt that I was at my lowest relationship wise. I felt that I wasn’t prioritizing the things I wanted in a man, what I felt I deserved and I was just tired. Tired of being hurt, tired of wasting my time. I literally sat down in my bedroom and I said “My God, I don’t want to look for it anymore, I don’t care about being woo’d, if he is meant for me, please let them be the one and to come when it is time”. That was two months before our first outing. I never thought he’d be the one, until our first official date. All of our time knowing each other, he’d leave me post-its and books and chocolate and little drawings on my desk. I didn’t think he was telling me what he wanted to say all along “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you”. I didn’t get the memo… So we went on to years of not talking to each other, years of missing out on dates, years on trying not to catch each other’s eyes when clearly we wanted them to look back at the same time and as it may look sad to think wow all this time, we caught up rather quickly!

So there’s a work party and he’s coincidently working on the same team I’m working on and I invited a couple of coworkers to the place we were meeting later that night. I couldn’t not invite him you know… So as nervous as I was, reciting the words in my head as I’m walking along this stretch aisle in the newsroom, when I get to him, his big eyes just staring at me like he hadn’t seen me in forever. I mean he has, but me looking back at the same time, in a casual way, about to have a conversation, it’s been a long minute. I get it, we had been distant from each other all this time, but I proceeded in the homework I was assigned, which was to invite people I thought were part of the team that should go. I did not go out of my way, to invite him (hahaha totally lying, I so did). I said “there’s a party tonight, you’re a part of the team, see if you can make it, it’s at 8 at so and so place”. He said “ok”. My heart was RACING! I had never been so nervous before, like what was the big deal? But it was a big deal. I left a door open, the one I had closed many times before because I was ready to start something new and was willing to try it. Take the risk. I couldn’t wait for it to be 8 p.m., I was so excited! Aside from that any excuse to go out dancing, is my cup of tea.

When I arrived, I saw a couple of coworkers, we greeted each other and began chatting, but in my mind I was wondering if he got the memo this time. With the side of my eye, discreetly looking around, I was searching for him, but he wasn’t there. I sighed maybe I was relieved for a second because then it wasn’t for me right? It’s not the guy for you kind of thing, so just be yourself and have a great night. Spoke too soon! He was walking out the bar door next to where we were standing and I said to myself “Oh boy, he’s here!”. Well I went inside to get a glass of whiskey! It wasn’t until my second one that I started to loosen up. We were all in a crowd talking over one another and he was behind me the whole time and yet we hadn’t exchanged any words just yet. It was like a HUGE elephant was in the room and I was dying to talk to him, but I didn’t want to make it obvious.

The night continued, we were all dancing and when I was loose enough, I went up to him and said “We cool?”, he smiled , paused and said “Yeah, we cool.”All that time before, felt like an eternity, but when we exchanged those words and really began to enjoy the night together how we wanted to, the night sped up! We danced and danced and laughed and before you know it, 2 a.m. hit the clock. We left the club, proceeded to have some tacos with two other friends and still, we were not tired. So we all went bar hopping. We landed in one of our favorite spots “Ball and Chain”, a famous cuban restaurant-club, and we danced some more! I always tell him this, but there’s a moment in those last hours we spent together that will forever be engraved in my memory and it was the moment he asked me to dance. We danced salsa. And we were coordinated. It felt like choreography. I placed my hand over his neck and I was dying because I was like how daring of me! But he proceeded to grab my waist and we continued to dance. BEAUTIFUL! It was so perfect. If anyone knows me, knows I’m a dancer, so the fact that he danced and enjoyed it as much as I did, it was like why didn’t this happen sooner?

So we ended the night, I had taken an uber there, so I needed one back home, but he offered to drop me off. I said “okay but don’t try anything”, like if I really didn’t want him to. But he didn’t. He was a total gentleman, he made sure I had my seatbelt, he put on his and we spent the whole ride to my house talking about what could of been, what happened, why after all this time did I wait. We talked it through and it seemed that we were finally on the same page. I don’t know if you know those movies, I can’t think of one specifically at this moment, but it’s like flashes and picture frames switching fast and playing at the same time and then poof! There goes the fire works? Yeahhhhh that was it for me. It played just like that. When we arrived to my house, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and went inside and it was like walking on clouds, so silly and cheesy, but it was so perfectly us. When I went inside, I was drenched in sweat, super smelly I imagined. I just asked him he said I smelled fine. And then I needed to go shower quickly to sleep because it was 5 a.m. and my family and I had an event the day after at the Polar Express with my 3 month old nephew.