True love is hard to find, and sometimes it's looking right at you and you can't see it because you don't want to see it. And sometimes when you finally realize it's there, you are too late. Well, that didn't happen to me, but it almost happened to Greg. Greg is my husband. He's nothing I imagined I would be married to. Actually, I never envisioned my husband, nor my wedding day, so when it all happened I rolled without qualms. HOWEVER, and that should be all caps because my however is this: we dated for 3.2 years and during those years I was not allowed to use the M word. NOT ALLOWED. When I did, he ran...well, walked because if you know my husband you know that there isn't a fast bone in his body unless he's running down a court dribbling. Otherwise, even when my babies are toddling towards a busy street the man barely breaks out a gallop. But I digress.
It was the best of times, and the worst of times. How cliche, and yet...appropriate. I was done with high school and in my prime, but also had an infant daughter on my hip. Not the greatest man-catching device. I wasn't trying to find a husband or a father for my baby, but hanging out with a certain group of girls always steered me in the path of new guys. I flirted, partied, and even got a little too close to some, but mostly we were just one big group of kids having fun while our babies slept in the back bedroom. Ew, there's no way to make that sound okay...but it actually was. Two of the girls I hung out with had babies my baby's age so it was like a day care meets a disco some nights. But it was all clean fun. Along comes Greg. As a package deal. With his best friend he doubled with my friend and me, and we were teamed up on different sides. In other words, his best friend dated me first. This is nothing for Greg to stew over. I had actually dated most of his friends at some point in my life, but never met Greg during any of it so I didn't know he existed until this double date of which I write. And yes, he's the best of them all. Anyway...
we go on this double date, and it's at---you guessed it...the drive-in! It's the other guy, me, Greg, and my friend lined up in the back of a pick-up. I feel this foot flipping mine around and I think in my naivety, "wow, this truck is sure smashed, there's not even room for my feet!" All along, it was Greg trying to get a bit of my attention. The cuteness begins.
I dated his friend for like a month, but it didn't work out since he was a slimeball, and still is from what I hear. But I asked Greg out on a whim, literally a whim that I never imagined would go anywhere, and he accepted on a whim, literally a whim because he said, and I quote, "I only went out with you because you looked like fun, not because I thought it would lead to marriage." Like fun, huh? Oh...who's having fun now?
