Five Years Today

It certainly doesn't seem that long ago...

Five years ago today, I went to a wine tasting party. A close friend of mine accompanied me... partially because he'd never attended a wine tasting party, and partially to serve as my wingman.

When I got to the party, I figured there was no way I'd be getting any phone numbers. Everyone was either gay, already paired up, or both. I decided to make the best of it anyway. After all, there was a lot of good wine and food. The evening passed, I got acquainted with a few people, and we were having a good time.

There was one woman there who piqued my interest. Running around, making sure that everyone else was having a good time, replacing the empty wine bottles, bringing out fresh courses of food, I thought that she may have been dating the hostess. Every now and then, she'd stop for a moment, and chat with someone. One of those chats was with me.

I don't specifically recall everything we discussed... after all, I'd had a few glasses of wine by then. And quite frankly, I was a bit enchanted with her presence. I did manage to slyly find out that she was not dating the hostess... or anyone else for that matter. (I probably wasn't as subtle as I'd like to think, but hey, it's my story.)

Still more time passed... my wingman had kind of gone his own way by this time, but that was okay. I decided to focus on the one who had enchanted me, and didn't need my wingman. I did, however, notice that one other guy was trying to swoop in on my prey. I even mentioned at one point during the evening. I don't remember exactly what she said, but by the end of the conversation I knew that she wasn't interested in that dude.

I dove in for the kill, and asked her if she'd have coffee with me. She responded by telling me that she wasn't looking for anything serious. My response? "Hey. I'm not asking you to marry me. It's just coffee." A few minutes after that, she said she had to leave, so she didn't turn into a pumpkin. Three days later, we had our first date. Six months after meeting, she moved in. At the next year's wine tasting party, I proposed. We've been together virtually every day for five years. It certainly doesn't seem that long.