If you didn't get a chance to read Part 1, I had just met Kris and it was the Summer of 2004.
The next few months became a blur to me since I was only home one weekend out of four in August due to my best friend John's wedding in Memphis and flying out to DC for an interview with USAID (United States Agency for International Development) as an Executive Office. And don't even ask me to remember September since I don't, other than the fact that Kris and I had our first "fight" then and he sent me a Vermont Teddy Bear to apologize. I later found out that was not the first one of those he had given someone and asked him not to get me another one. If I'm going to get a gift, I don't want anything he gave to the ex.
Beyond that, all I can say is every night from the time I walked in the door from work until the time I went to bed I was on the phone with Kris. We talked about everything! We told each other stories about growing up, our families, our friends, our exes, our jobs...you name it, we probably talked about it. Also during that time I was planning a long overdue trip to Italy to see my friend Monique and her daughter Eliza. You may remember Monique from my stories about Honduras. She was my sitemate for five short months. I hadn't seen her since we all put her on a plane in Tegulcigalpa in October 2001. She was living in Italy because her husband is in the Army and that's where they were stationed at the time. I had always wanted to go there and what better way to do it than to go see a great friend and have a free place to stay!
So in all of my trip planning Kris and I started talking about the idea of me making a stop in New Jersey before and after the Italy trip. I had never been to NJ either and I figured I could see him and maybe see a bit of NYC while I was there too. At first the idea was for me to stay at a nearby hotel, since I had only met him once and it might be a bit odd staying at his house. Little did I know that would all change very quickly.
I told Kris that when I talked to him or got an email from him I got butterflies in my stomach. He then decided to try and explain to me what kind of butterflies he had and send me an email on September 13, 2004 with the dictionary.com definition of love. At first I didn't get it, but when I got home that night and we were on the phone it hit me like a thunderbolt...he had told me he loved me! I got out my dictionary and then hopped online and low and behold that was exactly what he said to him in his email. He told me he was really surprised that he felt that way after 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS people! We had been in each others physical presence once and he was telling me he loved me. How the hell did that happen?
Don't ask me how, but between September 13th and October 1st I decided that I was in love with Kris too. And on that day I was on a plane on my way to Jersey. Once I arrived at the airport, it was like a movie. Not quite how Kris told it in his version, but very romantic anyway. I think we both had a case of permagrin and I couldn't stop looking at him. Our first weekend together, he took me into the city and showed me where he works then we went to the top of the Empire State Building. I had picked out a ring I wanted to buy at Tiffany & Co. (what girl doesn't want to go there?) so he graciously went with me and while I had him in the building I jokingly asked him if he wanted to go look at engagement rings. They had one on their website that I had fallen in love with and I wanted to see it in person. Again, he went along with me, but he just about lost his lunch when he saw the price tag on one of them that I tried on...it was $9k and had a flawless stone. Of course if you hear him tell the story, I marched him right up to the engagement rings and said "Buy me this one."
That evening we ate dinner at Mocca's. Mocca's is a little Hungarian restaurant in a Hungarian neighborhood. It was wonderful. To date, that is my favorite restaurant in the city. The food is always wonderful and most times the staff treats you like family. Trying my best to be romantic, I stopped at a corner shop after dinner to buy him a rose but the silly thing took it from me and paid for it thinking I wanted it for myself. I then had to go get another rose and literally slap his hand to let me pay for it.
The next day we just hung out at the house watching movies and dreading the trip to the airport. At the airport, I took as long as I could saying good-bye and kept turning around to blow kissing to him until I couldn't see him any more. Before I got on the plane, I called his cell to tell him once more that I loved him but I got his voice mail and had to leave a message. Crushing moment, but I got past it and got on the plane. Before I left him, we changed my return ticket to come back from Italy a day early so I could spend more time with him. It worked out better for Monique too, since she had to take me to the airport in Venice at the break of dawn.
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