Pup & Ben, Part 5

Rewinding the clock over a year now, back to the immediate aftermath of our first date...from Wednesday, September 24, 2008, onward. (I need to tell myself the date just so I'm clear on what I'm writing about. It's been a pretty eventful 12+ months since then, and things don't show any sign of slowing down!)

So...let's see if I can recall. (Now don't get too upset, darling little bengal...I have a better memory for the peaks than for the valleys in between, so if I'm forgetting some details that meant much more to you, well...that's just the way it goes. You'll have to correct me some more...)

I have no idea what I did that Wednesday. I'm not sure if I was surveying, or went to campus, or even if I worked that night at Starbucks again. By that time I was satisfied with my Starbucks career: I'd made a little money, gotten plenty of free coffee, and most importantly, nabbed a good-looking woman who'd wandered through. Mission accomplished! Two weeks later I was gone.

But Kate was very much present.

Thursday we planned to meet for lunch. I felt the connection on our first date, and was as certain of it two days later as on the first night. But things were young, of course, so I was still really eager to impress her, and show her only the best things I could find. So my choice for lunch was this little cafe not too far away from Duggin's house, a place called Cafe Luna. Since I was first introduced to it several years ago, I thought of it as the perfect lunch cafe, and even though it was raining lightly and we wouldn't be able to eat outdoors, the food was sure to be just as good as usual.

Only...duty called Kate. Duggin was the reason she was in Rhode Island, after all. And this afternoon, Kate was a little worried about spending a long time away from her home. We met at the library (I think...I know I was at the library before we met...hmm. If our accounts won't have diverged already, they'll start now.) What I do remember is that I met Kate, and she explained why she didn't feel comfortable leaving East Greenwich, and I felt perhaps a touch of anger, but mostly disappointment and resignation. After all, I wanted to treat her to a special place...what to do in EG?

We meandered down to Main Street, and among the other tiny eateries was Ed's Roost, this small storefront with the dark sign, dark paint, and dark interior. Not particularly inviting, it would seem, but I'd been there once and hadn't been disappointed. Besides, the dark interior has the feel of a venerable old cabin, with bare wood stained dark with age. The ceiling is surprisingly high, and for the brown-to-black surroundings, the room feels surprisingly large.

So it was with a lightened heart that I sat down with her, and we kept on chatting as we got ready to order. Don't ask me to recall what we were talking about. Between bits of life story, present-day facts of life, and our peerless banter, we kept on jawing as we got our food. Every now & then I order a Reuben, and I can only recall having one bad one in my life. But usually I default to a burger. I think she got a BLT--Kate likes BLTs--but we were late, just at the end of their day, so we kind of slid in for a last-minute bit of work on the part of the chef before he closed the kitchen. So the place was quiet as we ate and kept on talking, and then on out back into the rain.

I didn't want to let her go, though, so I was casting about for excuses to spend more time with her. I asked where she was headed next, and she answered the supermarket, and invited me along. So we went, and she saw another expression of my coffee addiction: Dave's Market coffee. See, there's this small chain of supermarkets in the East Greenwich-North Kingstown area of Rhode Island, Dave's: reasonably upscale, with the usual supermarket stuff, a smattering of organics and gourmet things to go with (Katie's favorite) the hot food bar (a frequent dinner choice while I'm away, she tells me). And free coffee.

Free coffee! No better or worse than any drip you'd pay $1.99 for, and all you have to do is make a pretense of buying something. My version of the honor system for the free coffee is, of course, buy something, however trivial. As long as I've lived in North Kingstown, a little over four years now, I'd make a point of stopping every day there, just to get something to go with the free coffee. So what if I might wind up with three tubes of toothpaste at home, or two economy packs of toilet paper, or enough cat litter to last six months. The money would be put to some constructive use while I maintained my caffeine fix.

So Kate went to Dave's, and I hit the coffee, conveniently placed right in front of the entrance. (Never mind I'd just had some over lunch, too...it was free, after all!) Content and coming into my caffeine-and-sugar buzz, I strolled along behind Katie as she walked down the aisle, and my eyes slid slowly downward from her head...then I heard her voice.

"Enjoying the view?"

Um.

When a man's busted, there's really nothing for him to say. Some guys might stammer an excuse, a rare few perhaps might actually have a smooth reply, but I for one could only lamely admit guilt.

"Uh, yeah." She turned her amused eyes on mine, and probably made some remark to the effect of, "You're walking two paces behind me, and you don't think I'm perfectly aware of what you're focused on?"

Somewhat chastened (but not much), I came up alongside her and we walked on as she picked up the things she wanted and we left. I felt slightly disappointed, that even though we'd spent some good time together, it still felt cut short, and it'd just been a walk through the rain, a sandwich, and a visit to the supermarket. Big fat huge deal that.

Moderately desperate, I angled to see her Friday as well. We were planning to see each other Saturday, but I didn't want to skip another day too, especially since this afternoon had, at least compared to what I wanted, kind of tanked.

At this point, having seen her again, I was starting to feel a slightly different sort of desperation. I didn't want to let her go (sounds ridiculous since we'd just met, but be honest: the world's a little different when you're falling for someone), and I wanted her to feel the urgency I felt. So I basically begged to meet her after I got off work Friday night, and she not-so-reluctantly agreed.

Around 9 or so I got off work and she was there, so we walked across the parking lot to a little sushi place (as it turns out, a favorite cuisine of both of us), and though she'd already eaten, I prevailed on her to join me for dinner (since I was starving).

This wasn't my first exposure to hot saki--and trust me, it's much better hot--but I gave myself a royal little buzz, as she refused to drink much of anything beyond a polite toast. So I did one foolish thing, knocked the envelope into the little fish pool beside our table. Because, you might recall, I'd forgotten to give her the birthday card to go along with the rose, teddy bear and shells on our first date, her birthday. And I also had those lame little gifts I'd picked up Sunday, the cheap candleholder and whatever else it was I bought, later replaced by the bear. So I gave everything else to her Friday, like a second little birthday.

I don't think she had much sushi, but I was famished so that was fine. But after the meal, she made like she was ready to go back home, and I begged her to take at least a small walk. It was a dark, close night, mist hung in the air. She didn't need much encouragement so we strolled toward the baseball diamond nearby, and up the road that ran along the right-field side. We weren't saying much, and I decided the moment was right to tell her about my premonition on Tuesday night, when we'd both worn black.

I told her the omen, that our both choosing black meant that we'd be together as long as we lived. She didn't react with the alarm or revulsion I'd feared. Rather the opposite, she came closer and we kissed. That was when faith became knowledge, and I knew I'd found the real thing.