Love Unexpected

"We" started with a drunken phone call on December 27th, 2003.

Christmas of 2003 had been a rough time for me for many reasons (which I won't go into here). I was going through a time when I just wanted to stay in bed and wallow in self-pity, and believe me, I did it well. After awhile the phone stopped ringing and the "festive" invitations stopped coming. No one wanted the "dark cloud" to rain on their Christmas cheer and I couldn't really blame them. I didn't even want to be around me.

Terrie, my neighbour, called me on the afternoon of the 27th and asked me if I would go over that evening and help her bottle a batch of wine. She wouldn't take no for an answer and after arguing back and forth I finally relented, albeit more than a little reluctantly.

I noticed his business card on the table as soon as I sat down. I already knew a little about him because Terrie had been singing his praises to me for awhile in the hopes of hooking us up. They had had a brief "fling" the summer before, but now that they were just friends, Terrie had made it her goal to set him up with someone. Unfortunately, I allowed my own insecurities to come into play whenever he came to town (he lived and worked three hours away) and I would do everything in my power to make myself scarce and avoid a confrontation thinking that since he had been with her, he wouldn't be even remotely attracted to me. I commented on the professionalism of the card and simply tossed it aside without another thought.

After "testing" four (or maybe it was five) bottles of wine ourselves, the business card seemed more intriguing and I suggested that perhaps we ought to phone him. Terrie was a little taken aback by my suggestion considering I had never taken an interest in him before, but thought it would be amusing to speak with him anyway (especially since I was well on my way to being "three sheets to the wind").

I suppose to say "he had me from hello" sounds trite, but it's the best way to describe how he captivated me (and it didn't hurt that he had an Australian accent either). He spoke intelligently and eloquently and I seemed to keep him rather amused with my uninhibited detailing of my body art (which to this day embarrasses the hell out of me when I think about it). When we hung up with the promise to "keep in touch", I was amazed to find we had been speaking for 45 minutes. All in all, it was somewhat of a healing evening for me, at least in the emotional sense.

The following day was a scheduled work day and when I awoke I couldn't understand why there was a marching band playing in my front yard. When I sat up to check it out however, I realized the band wasn't playing in my yard but rather in my head Ugh! A red wine hangover! To make matters worse, when I remembered the drunken phone call, all I wanted to do was slip further down in bed and bury my head in the covers, allowing self-pity to control me again.

But with a deep breath of resolve, I pulled back the covers and gingerly made my way to the shower, already composing in my mind the note of apology I would e-mail to him. Ensuring I had his business card tucked in my purse, I made my way into the office and immediately sent off the best apology I could muster under the circumstances.

I didn't really expect to hear from him again and was rather surprised to find a note from him in my in-box a short while later. It seems that while the prior evening's phone call had left me embarrassed, it had left him not only amused but more than curious about the "sober" me. His tone was light-hearted and the note was both informative (about him) and inquisitive (about me).

And so began our game of e-mail tag. Because it was still considered to be the "holiday season", work was a little slow and we soon found our day filled with e-mail writing back and forth to each other. Each note would contain more and more questions, some silly, some very personal and neither of us had a problem answering them all. That night, we talked on the phone for five and a half hours. The next night it was seven hours. Our conversations were all encompassing and above all else we laughed, oh how we laughed!!!

On the 30th we graduated from e-mail to chatting one-on-one via Yahoo Messenger. It was also on the 30th that we exchanged photos. This was a huge deal for me because, as mentioned above, not only am I insecure about my looks but I am not the least bit photogenic. He didn't seem to mind the photos I did send though. He was both complimentary and flattering and he made me feel good about myself.

I had seen photos of him in the past while thumbing through Terrie's photo albums and while he really wasn't the type I would "normally" fall for, I had pretty much "fallen" for him over the course of the past few days of correspondence. I found myself opening his photo a lot just to see his electric smile and I would get chills.

The following day was New Year's Eve and despite the prior plans we had made with friends in our respective cities, we remained in close contact. In fact, the clock had barely struck midnight when my cell phone rang. Just to hear his voice was "kiss" enough.

We had talked about meeting and had agreed that he would drive up on January 10th and we would see what there was to see (if anything) between us. In the meantime however, we made a vow of "exclusivity" to one another deciding to wait and see if the chemistry between us would grow with meeting face-to-face.

At 2:30 a.m. on January 3rd, my phone rang and it was him. He asked if I had plans for that weekend and when I told him I didn't, he said he didn't want to wait to meet. He asked if he could come down that weekend instead of the following one. I agreed and for the first time since we began talking, we were able to end the phone call with "see you later". He said he would keep me posted from time-to-time as to his ETA.

Unbeknownst to him, I made a few plans of my own that day. While we had agreed that we would go out for dinner, I took a half day off from work and decided instead to show-off my "culinary" expertise. I put together a nice home-cooked meal, chilled a bottle of fine champagne, set the table with my best china and crystal, cleaned the house from top to bottom and made myself as presentable as possible, settling for comfort in a sweater and jeans. Each time he phoned I knew he was that much closer and the butterflies in my stomach soon turned to pterodactyls as he neared.

When I heard the front gate open I took a deep breath and thought "Well", this is it". I opened the front door and saw his brilliant smile. While we agreed to meet with a hug, what happened next was definitely unplanned on both our parts. He scooped me up in his arms and he kissed me...and kissed me...AND kissed me!!! And believe me, I kissed him back with all of my might. When at last we pulled away from each other, we just looked at each other as though to say "where did THAT come from?" and burst out laughing. Yep, we had clicked!

He was flattered to see the trouble I had gone to for him by preparing dinner and praised the meal time and again. He volunteered to clean up when we were finished but I told him to leave it and that we could do it later.

We took our champagne into the living room and with him on one end of the couch and me on the other, our hands meeting somewhere in between, we were both content to just talk...and laugh and sometimes even cry as we discussed various times and events in our lives.

As the clock neared 11:00, it became obvious that the late night/early morning phone calls had taken their toll on the both of us and it took everything in our power to suppress our yawns. We decided to turn in and he asked casually if I wanted him to sleep in the spare room as we previously discussed. I told him that it wasn't necessary and he promised he would respect my feelings and would be content to just hold me (I know what you're thinking "we've heard THAT before").

We each got ready for bed and while he was unpacking he pulled out a big black t-shirt and handed it to me. I was shocked (and flattered) that he had remembered. One night on the phone, while talking about long distance relationships, I had told him that I thought a long distance relationship with him wouldn't be so bad, if I could have something of his to cuddle when we were apart. He had sprayed the t-shirt with his cologne and said that he hoped I would sleep in it while we were apart. He said he would freshen the scent each time we were together so I would always have it with me. In a quiet voice, he asked if I would wear it that night, if he could put it on me, stressing that he would remain respectful and not cross any lines.

I nodded, admittedly with some trepidation, and very slowly he began to do just that. Easing down the zipper of my sweater, reaching behind me to unhook my bra, unfastening my jeans and then kneeling to tug them down over my hips. He hooked his thumbs into my thong and eased it down as well. When I stood completely naked before him, he simply smiled up at me and rested his cheek against my tummy. He stood then and told me to hold my arms over my head as he pulled the t-shirt on, smoothing it down over my curves.

We crawled into bed and both of us laid on our stomachs and continued to talk, exchanging soft and sweet kisses from time to time. A little while later, he hushed me and slid the sheet down tucking it around my bottom. He lifted the t-shirt and began to give me a long and luxurious back-rub. I basked and stretched under his ministrations and when his mouth replaced his hands, I purred in utter contentment.

When he finished covering my entire back with kisses, I reached for him. The kisses deepened, becoming more urgent and I quietly slipped the t-shirt back over my head. His hands began to wander over me, stroking my breasts and teasing my nipples into hardened points. He then kissed my front, using the same care he had used on my back.

His hand reached down to cup my heat and I was embarrassed by the wetness I knew he found there. He quickly pulled his hand away and stopped himself saying "no, I promised I would behave". I took his hand and moved it back down. He looked me in the eye and said "I won't be able to stop". I looked back at him and said quietly "I won't want you to" and with that we began to make love, slowly, softly and gently. When he finally entered me, my body immediately shuddered with a powerful orgasm. He rode me through the waves and as I grew accustomed to our fit, I moved with him, finding his rhythm and tightened around his length. When I came for the second time, I brought him over the edge with me and it was so beautiful, I literally had tears in my eyes when it was over.

I fell asleep in his arms that night and stayed that way until we awoke the next morning and slowly explored each other until the need to become one overwhelmed us and again, we made passionate love.

We spent the entire weekend together talking, laughing, playing and making love. Before he left on Monday morning, I knew I had fallen in love with him.

To say it was the most romantic time of my life sounds silly sometimes, considering I was 35 years old and had been married at one time. But when I look back on those times, even now, I know it's the truth.

There are times when I wish I could erase these memories, knowing it would be easier to move on if I did. And yet, they remain and probably will remain etched in my mind, in my heart, to make me remember that love can happen in the strangest ways, at the strangest times...when you least expect it.