Lee and I had met online, bumbling through several weeks of awkward IM and text messaging. Even with the awkwardness, I really had fun chatting with him. He was glib, down to earth, funny, and our chats felt like a good chess match. I was not used to the online thing and neither was he... there was no rulebook for how to do this. So we tried getting to know each other in this awkward fashion for a while. But really, for the most part we sucked at it. I had no idea what he was really like, and he kept getting me all wrong too.
But we had spent those same weeks checking each other out online. A lot. Every time I texted with him, I had to pull up his profile. And boy did he look cute. He was a Marine, over six feet tall and covered in lean, golden muscles in that particular way that adds up to veryy sexy proportions. His arms were each almost half the thickness of his V-shaped torso, he had a long waist decorated with 6 individually articulated ab muscles, and nicely defined, muscular legs with just enough hair on them. He was well-traveled and extremely well read too, which made for interesting conversations. From what I could tell, even though he was not what I would call a "big fish" (a really complex guy who's got it all), he was still plenty Interesting with a capital "I."
I'm pretty sure he pinged me the first time mostly because of my superhot profile photos. I'd just happened to have some from a chance photoshoot, I wasn't really a model, but I'd gotten lucky with the photos... I looked like a pro pin-up girl. Not the queen-sized kind either ... so my inbox was flooded with "Yumm" and "Hi beautiful" and simply "What a bod!" I got messages from impossible places (like Italy) and from impossible matches (you know, guys who would look really odd next to me in public). My inbox was a hodge-podge and I almost never found anybody interesting there. I had to hunt and peck myself, enter their profiles to see more photos, and then surf away from their pages. That was enough to get a message from the guy. What an oddly delicate dance.
Lee's first message to me was short and made it clear he'd actually read my profile after checking out my photos. "So you like dolphins. How come you intimidate people?" Thus our banter began. He was sensitive and blunt, but never pervy like some of the others. We had the Big Important Grownup Conversation about Relationships. I wanted NSA and he wanted Mrs. Right, sort of. I started to feel like the shallow one. But he put up with it and gave me a chance, let me lead a little. He was about 10 years younger than me, had a few stars in his eyes, and said he liked that I knew what I wanted and had that "confidence." Being the "older woman" was totally bizarre to me, I'd always picked older men, followed their lead.
So after a couple of late nights texting, we both realized we were going to have to meet up and get brave. I was more nervous than I expected... it felt like I was about to audition for a role I didn't know if I wanted. The transition from the comfortable texting to actually meeting was... visceral. We agreed to meet somewhere casual so neither of us would get all "done up." He seemed to have this weird thing about keeping it real, which I thought was funny given my profile photos. I could rock casual just as easily. It never mattered what I was wearing, I turned heads in a baggy sweatshirt. So I put on a pair of flared jeans and a clingy T-shirt with something hipstery on it, and walked over to the coffee shop near my house... casually hiding my racing heart. And ordered a cup of coffee. The barista was cheery and her flirting helped calm my nerves. He came right up behind me in line, smiled and winked, and ordered a tea. That was cool. And weird. And he was really really cute. And my knees went a littl soft. I forced myself to make eye contact with him, and put on my "one of the guys" act. We settled into low easy chairs in the corner. And then it got really hot. His eyes were all over me, I felt like a piece of meat. I suddenly wished we'd sat at a table, so I could have something between me an him. We were both grinning from ear to ear. I almost couldn't sip my coffee. I nudged his foot with mine and said,
"OK you're the guy so you start. Out with it, first thing that comes to mind. Whatever it is, no editing."
Aimiably, he fixed his eyes on the floor, smiling.
"Ok, you're really fucking hot and its weirding me out."
I almost spit out my coffee, took a deep breath, tucked a foot underneath me and said,
"I know what you mean. And I feel like everybody is watching us. Are they?"
Both of us scanned the room. The coffee shop was pretty busy, I was (thankfully) wrong.
"No," he said, still smiling. "Just me. But I'm going to just stare at this spot on the floor for a while. Its easier."
God, he could read my mind already. That was _my_ trick. I giggled.
"Ok I'm going to pick two spots on you for a while that are Ok to look at. Your left ear, and your right foot. That way I don't have to make eye contact. Its freaking me out."
He nodded, saying.
"You do that. Um. So now your turn. What do you think? I mean, about me now that you've actually seen me in person?"
The question hung in the air like a wrecking ball. My mind raced, too many answers. I blurted out, oversimplifying,
"I think you're even more interesting than you were before. And you are cuter than your photos."
He was. He had a really nice ass under his camo shorts. I sensed him breathing a sigh of relief, then I imagined what he'd sound like moaning. I could have kicked myself. So I stared at his left ear and continued, masking the tension,