My Funny Valentine
So about 5 years ago, I was hanging out at the James Joyce, which is a bar I once frequented in Durham. The bouncer there and my best friend were madly flirting with one another. One night, said bouncer's roommate showed up at the bar. "Keely, this is my roommate, Noah."
Nice to meet you's and such were exchanged.
Over the next few months, we saw each other more, hung out more, etc. A mutual friend said "I think you should hook up with Noah" and I looked at him in a whole new way. Suddenly, where he was the friend of a friend, he became a prospect.
Well, 3 months of flirting later, I was getting nowhere, so I gave up. More or less.
The 30th of December, Lou and I were headed out and we called Noah to come meet up with us. Laura drove, so my car was at her place. After a while of hanging out, she claimed she was tired and she left me with him to give me a ride to my car.
He gave me a ride back, and we sat in his car talking for a while, and I realized that if he didn't kiss me right that second, it was hopeless. And thankfully, he did. And continued to kiss me for about 4 hours. Sometime around 5am, I made him take me to the gas station up the street to use the bathroom and get a couple of bottles of water. We went back to our parking spot and we made out some more. Everyone kept their clothes on, it was just good, old fashioned making out in the car. Around 7:30 we went to Honey's. It's a greasy spoon sort of place for people to go to sober up after the bar closes. The waitress brought us our eggs and toast and called us lovebirds.
We had a very rocky start, me and Noah. We even broke up a couple of times. I missed my period at the beginning of April and it took 5 pregnancy tests to make me truly believe that I was pregnant. I had just broken up with Noah 3 days before. But as anyone who was around at that time knew, it didn't take.
We still had our rocky moments, but Ella came along and suddenly, Noah was making more trips to Holly Springs to see us, and things were changing. Dad kept asking us why we weren't getting married, but it was complicated. I wanted him to want me, not just to marry because we had a baby.
Ella got bigger, Noah and I changed. We hit another bump in the road here and there and one of them almost seemed to do us in. But we found a way to work things out between us. And it was that bump in the road that made him say out loud to me, "You and Ella are the most important things in my life." While I thought maybe that could be the case, he'd never said it out loud before.
One day, Noah sits up in the bed and asks me to marry him. I thought he was joking at first. He had told me long ago that he didn't really believe in marriage. He meant it when he asked me though. And about 8 months later, we managed to tie the knot. I finally moved in with him once and for all about 3 weeks later (although we pretty much were staying here all the time).
Our first Valentine's day was spent at a bar, being mildly annoyed at something I'm not sure I remember what. Our second was the day Ella got her first set of shots, and we watched movies at my house and played with our 2 month old. I am not sure I remember all of them after that. Last year was spent celebrating our recent wedding and attending the wedding of some friends.
This year, I'm sitting in our home, looking at the beautiful roses he bought me, and watching him and Ella clean up the kitchen together, and thinking to myself, I am the luckiest girl I know.
Nice to meet you's and such were exchanged.
Over the next few months, we saw each other more, hung out more, etc. A mutual friend said "I think you should hook up with Noah" and I looked at him in a whole new way. Suddenly, where he was the friend of a friend, he became a prospect.
Well, 3 months of flirting later, I was getting nowhere, so I gave up. More or less.
The 30th of December, Lou and I were headed out and we called Noah to come meet up with us. Laura drove, so my car was at her place. After a while of hanging out, she claimed she was tired and she left me with him to give me a ride to my car.
He gave me a ride back, and we sat in his car talking for a while, and I realized that if he didn't kiss me right that second, it was hopeless. And thankfully, he did. And continued to kiss me for about 4 hours. Sometime around 5am, I made him take me to the gas station up the street to use the bathroom and get a couple of bottles of water. We went back to our parking spot and we made out some more. Everyone kept their clothes on, it was just good, old fashioned making out in the car. Around 7:30 we went to Honey's. It's a greasy spoon sort of place for people to go to sober up after the bar closes. The waitress brought us our eggs and toast and called us lovebirds.
We had a very rocky start, me and Noah. We even broke up a couple of times. I missed my period at the beginning of April and it took 5 pregnancy tests to make me truly believe that I was pregnant. I had just broken up with Noah 3 days before. But as anyone who was around at that time knew, it didn't take.
We still had our rocky moments, but Ella came along and suddenly, Noah was making more trips to Holly Springs to see us, and things were changing. Dad kept asking us why we weren't getting married, but it was complicated. I wanted him to want me, not just to marry because we had a baby.
Ella got bigger, Noah and I changed. We hit another bump in the road here and there and one of them almost seemed to do us in. But we found a way to work things out between us. And it was that bump in the road that made him say out loud to me, "You and Ella are the most important things in my life." While I thought maybe that could be the case, he'd never said it out loud before.
One day, Noah sits up in the bed and asks me to marry him. I thought he was joking at first. He had told me long ago that he didn't really believe in marriage. He meant it when he asked me though. And about 8 months later, we managed to tie the knot. I finally moved in with him once and for all about 3 weeks later (although we pretty much were staying here all the time).
Our first Valentine's day was spent at a bar, being mildly annoyed at something I'm not sure I remember what. Our second was the day Ella got her first set of shots, and we watched movies at my house and played with our 2 month old. I am not sure I remember all of them after that. Last year was spent celebrating our recent wedding and attending the wedding of some friends.
This year, I'm sitting in our home, looking at the beautiful roses he bought me, and watching him and Ella clean up the kitchen together, and thinking to myself, I am the luckiest girl I know.