The Lovestory Project
Sunday, November 09, 2003
I'd known Brian for years before I ever thought of dating him.
That's not true actually. The first time I saw him (playing pool in the mail room of Marlboro College), he looked so comfortable - I wanted to go away with him live together in a sun-filled apartment and eat dinner in a dingy but homey kitchen. But then his then-girlfreind walked in, and I realized I was being silly and went back to sorting through my mail.
Anyway, when I finally got to know him, it was years later, and through this guy I was seeing. Obviously, this made any sort of romantic connection nonexistant and beside-the-point. We'd go on double dates: my date and I and Brian and his. But my romance was not to be, and as the summer wore on, I'd find myself wondering what I was doing with the guy I was seeing at the time. Lets call him El Guapo
Some nights, when the four of us went to dinner, I'd think that, if I were to walk in as an objective observer, Brian would be the one I'd match myself with, not El Guapo. Needless to say, that relationship ended soon after.
Another year or so passed. I was living down in Brattleboro, about a half-hour drive from the school. I don't know how to drive, so every morning I'd take the school's van service up. Brian's pickup broke down that winter, so he'd end up taking the school's van too. Some mornings, we'd talk, but honestly, most mornings I was too tired to think of him one way or the other.
Then Brian moved up to Burlington, and I hardly ever saw him at all. He was finishing up his degree at Marlboro, but he was living a two hour drive away, and staying in a freind's cabin deep in the woods when he was around.
Then one night, my freind Shana invited me to a party. I was disinclined to go - I had work to do and I was tired. Besides, she lived up by the college, and without a car, I'd be dependant on the kindness of strangers to get me there and back again. But there was a group going up from town, and Shana finally convinced me to at least make an appearance.
I walked over to my freind Schwartz's house at 8:00. When I walked in, I saw Brian. Its funny, but I remember how happy I was to see him - I hadn't thought of him in ages, but I felt as if there was no one I'd rather see.
So we left for the party - a bunch of us in Schwartz's car, and Brian in his truck.
I spent most of the evening hanging out with Shana, then went out to sit by the bonfire that was burning out behind her cabin. And there was Brian. We talked for hours, and, assuming that he was staying with Schwartz, who lived just a block away from my apartment, I asked him for a ride home.
As it turned out, he wasn't staying at Schwrtz's - he was staying in the opposite direction, at a cabin deep in the woods. But he gave me a ride home, and asked me out to the movies the next night. I agreed.
THe next morning, I called my best freind Liza.
"How was the party?" she asked
"Weird," I said. "I have a date with Brian Andrews."
"You know," she said, "I could almost see that working."
And it has.
