Three hours and two giant blisters later...

We sat on a bench outside Nini's, finally having exhausted ourselves wandering around downtown. We had talked about EVERYTHING. Friends, family, the future, music, movies- we had laughed, joked, questioned, and been intruiged. The cute shoes had effectively worn blisters onto my feet, and I was doing my best to not limp. We sat talking about violence and the loss of innocence- I told you we talked about everything. I was impressed by (and trying not to giggle) the fact that he had gotten righteiously angry over the story of one of my friend's abusive marriage. It took him a few minutes to calm down, but led to this statement: "I'm pretty black and white." to which I answered, "I'm more of a peacock." He burst out laughing, "What!?" "Oh, purples, blues, greens, golds, it's all in there." He laughed some more, "I've never heard anyone discribe themselves that way." By this time, it's 10:40 at night, and we have church in the morning. I needed to say something. "Well, Mike Dombrowski, I can be a lot to take, and I know that about myself. I am open to hanging out again, if you want to, but if not, that's ok too." Hey, sometimes we just need an out. A joint escape clause/self-protection measure. I had had so much fun, but I wasn't about to force someone to do what they did not want to, or feel like they had obligations to uphold. He just chuckled. "I would like to hang out again." Wow, ok, that's unexpected. Great, but unexpected. He still laughs about this. "Why would I have not wanted to hang out again?! Who wouldn't want to?" But remember, dear reader, I had been a lone wolf for a long time. We got up off the bench to head to my car. "Well, I'm glad you didn't believe all of the rumors about me." He laughed, "What rumors?" "I don't know, I'm sure there are some. Who gave you my number?" "Jill. I just called her up and asked."
I'm so glad he did.