A Smooch, Not A Peck--The Sixth Day I Knew Andrew

This email message was from late at night on Wednesday, February 8, 2006.




Silvio, I hope you had a good day.

I did.

We did the handball/Tower Records/Georgetown thing, as I sort of planned last night. I couldn't come up with a better alternative.

Silvio, Andrew smooched me. After our first two games of handball, we stood in the handball court for a short breather next to each other and I rested my left arm on his right shoulder (deliberately--See Silvio Recommendation Number Three). Do you know what he did? He placed his right arm AROUND MY NECK and pursed his lips and smooched me on my cheek. It was NOT a peck. It was a smooch. Then he kept his arm around my neck for about a minute, and then he ruffled my hair and we played our third game.

That smooch put to rest any of my lingering doubts that Andrew did not view me in a romantic way. That smooch totally erased my fears that Andrew would shy away from all physical contact, and that smooch settled my emotions and worries down no end. I feel much more relaxed now, and much more confident that I should just step back and let Andrew handle things at his own pace.

Maybe it is my imagination, but after the game he seemed to smile at me in the locker room more than before, too.

Tower Records worked out well. Being there made Andrew talk a lot about music--just as he talks a lot about books in bookstores, a fact I learned on Friday, our first day--and I learned that his favorite composer is Brahms and I learned that he loves 20th Century music and I learned that his favorite opera is Janacek's "Jenufa", which he says is heartbreaking, and I learned that he is currently starting to enjoy the music of Bruckner for the first time (that makes one of us!).

After we got to Georgetown, I made no effort to touch Andrew but I did do the shoulder-touching-shoulder thing every time we had to wait for "Walk" signs at street corners.

In Georgetown, Andrew touched me twice. While walking on M Street, he touched my lower back once when he wanted to stop and look in a store window. At Georgetown Park, he touched my lower back once again when he wanted to change the direction in which we were walking.

At dinner tonight, he was more charming than I had ever seen him. I think that is because he is getting more and more comfortable with me. Silvio, that man is so damn beautiful it's disgusting!

He asked me if I wanted to come over to his place tomorrow after class, at 12:45 again, just like on Tuesday. I said I'd be there.