I told him I was twenty-nine, an only child with my parents both alive and happily married. I told him about Stacey being my best friend since forever and our other two stooge friends, Laura and Ally.
He told me about ‘the other guy’, Stu, his cousin and more about his close friendship with the Leokovs. Turns out he knows Tina personally.
And wouldn’t you know it? She vouched for me.
Two points for me.
We stayed up way past midnight chatting while subtly touching. Eventually, he stood up to leave. As I walked him through the door, my chest began to ache.
I was starting to feel depressed. And as though he felt the same way, he pulled me into a warm hug, cradling the back of my head in consolation. “I want to see you again.”
As I buried my face into the crook of his neck, I whispered, “Okay.”
He asked, “Tomorrow too soon?”
I sighed. “Heck no.”
As he pulled away, he took my hands in his and explained that because of the late nights he works, he normally sleeps till late afternoon so he’d be free after dark.
I could understand that.
My dad worked shift work so I knew how it could be to deal with someone deprived of sleep.
It was like trying to wake the dead.
His green eyes searched my face. He lowered his face to mine and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, we kissed. Long and slow.
I felt that kiss.
I felt it everywhere.
It was electric and I didn’t want it to end.
He kissed me deeper, making love to my lips. When we parted, he pecked my lips repeatedly and whispered against them, “You make my heart beat.”
And I knew what he meant.
Not being able to stop myself, I lifted my hands, cupped his cheeks and brought him forward to my flushed face, lowering his lips to mine.
He tasted sweet and cool, like mint chocolate.
I could get used to that. I loved mint chocolate.
I wanted more of it.
Bastien Lee was a drug.
And I was addicted.
Three months had passed and Bastien was still my drug of choice.
Early in our relationship we worked on seeing each other as often as possible. This was made possible by the fact that we were committed to making that happen. Even on the nights he worked at the club, he would take a break, come down to my apartment, break in and shower me with kisses and affection for a solid hour then go back to work.
I had never had a man treat me like this before, like I was his everything.
It was confusing, and exhilarating, and scary as hell.
What was I to do with this?
The only thing I could.
Give as good as I got.
A month into our relationship, I told Bastien I was falling in love with him while watching The Price is Right. Face blank, he toyed with my fingers and asked, “Just now?”
Okay, so it had been a lot earlier that I had discovered my love for Bastien, but I wasn’t bat-shit crazy enough to tell him that.
I responded, “I don’t know exactly when but I know it now. For sure.”
He lowered his face to mine, curled a hand behind my neck and pulled me close till our noses touched. He roughly admitted, “I fell in love with you the second you forced an introduction. I wasn’t letting you get away. Even if you never called, I would’ve made it my mission to find you again and convince you to go out with me.”
This admission shook me.
Being who I am, I teased, “Oh yeah? And what if I said no.”
He pressed a light kiss to the corner of my mouth. “I would’ve worn you down, baby.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes closed tight. “This is going to sound crazy. I mean, it sounds crazy to me. But sometimes I think I was meant to- I don’t know- find you or something. Like-” I opened my eyes, pleading with him to understand. I whispered, “Like we were-”
I faded out, knowing it was crazy. And guys didn’t dig crazy on a lady.
So when he continued where I left off and uttered, “Like we were meant to be.”
I begged my mouth to stop saying things then. Thankfully, I didn’t say another word.
Instead, Bastien made it his turn to speak. “Never believed in that shit.”
And my heart sank.
Stupid mouth with the saying things and such!
I pretended to watch TV while suffering from the biggest heart palpitations known to man, otherwise known as a broken heart.
When he kissed my temple, I leaned into it. He added low enough for me to hear, “Never believed in that shit…till now.”
My heart kick-started with a vengeance.
I lowered my head to his chest, closed my eyes and basked in the silence around us.
Really.
That should’ve been my first clue.
Two months into our relationship, Bastien came. And he never left.
We never discussed moving in together, it just sort of happened.
Stacey, Laura and Ally wholly approved. They loved Bastien as much as I did. Mainly because Frost was now open to us every weekend if we chose to attend and Bastien always made sure me and my girls were looked after. He checked on us, made sure our drinks were filled and at the end of the night, he’d have Stu drive us home to save us taxi fare.
The girls loved him.
They’d said it once, they’d said it a thousand times.
The guy is too good to be true.
I agreed wholeheartedly.
And when they say something is too good to be true…
They’re usually right.
On our third month anniversary, I came home to find Bastien asleep.
This was not unusual. He was a night owl, and that didn’t bother me. I didn’t run on ten hours sleep so when I got home from work, I’d make us dinner and soon after dark, he’d wake. We would talk about my day as well as what him night would entail, eat and drink, make sweet, sweet love then Bastien would hold me as I fell asleep.
The worst part about Bastien’s work was that his weekends were shot. The best part about Bastien’s work was that he was working three nights a week and earning the same amount most people would for two weeks. He was kind of well off. He knew I wasn’t. That didn’t bother him, but he knew it bothered me when he paid for things that were my responsibility.
And the sneaky shit would do it all after I’d fallen asleep.
After a heated argument, Bastien gave in. And to say I was pleased was an understatement. “Fine,” he said. “I won’t use my money to pay for things anymore.”
That was when he pulled out a ring box and placed it on the table right in front of me.
That surely wasn’t what I thought it could be. I mean, come on! It was too soon. We had only known each other three months!
Face void, he opened the box. And I gasped. “Oh my God.”
Taking the box, he moved to kneel in front of me. “Been carrying this around for two months.” He took my left hand, slid the antique sapphire ring onto my ring finger and muttered, “If you like it then you gotta put a ring on it.”
Did he really just say that?
A hysterical laugh broke out of me. “Oh Jesus, you are such a dork.”
He grinned and I realised — again — how in love I was. He lost his usual confidence as he looked up at me and uttered, “Let me take care of you, Em. Forever.”
Tears prickled my eyes. I returned, “Only if I can take care of you too.”
He couldn’t contain his beaming smile. “Deal.”
And that was how Bastien and I got engaged.
We decided on a long engagement. Which, of course, meant we got married a month later.