You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

When XBD went south to care for his ailing mother, living alone again took some getting used to. Don't get me wrong, I'm very self-sufficient. But not having him to share those little day-to-day things had me feeling lonely. I busied myself with friends and functions, but dammit, I missed XBD. Sleeping alone left me feeling empty, without him reaching out to me and pulling me close. He knows how much I hate the south (sorry folks) so he didn't ask me to visit. But when I asked him how he'd feel if I went down there, he jumped at it. The cheapest flight was three weeks away, but at that point, he had only been gone a little more than a week. I gave all the details to XBD and he was just ecstatic. He made more than one joke about me "meeting the Fockers".

Two weeks before my trip, he called me and told me he was at an uncle's house, borrowing a pair of shoes. I asked him why, and he said, "well, I need some nice shoes to go with the outfit I picked out for when I pick you up at the airport". Stunned, I started to tear up. This man, this man's man who had so many women in the past, was picking out an outfit to wear when he saw ME! People, this is female behavior, not male behavior. Especially since we've been together for over a year. I mentioned it to a male co-worker and he confirmed that this is quite a rare thing for men to do, especially XBD and then he said, and I quote, "he really loves you". I really appreciate these little things he does nowadays, these little things that just show me how much he loves me without saying a word.

I made the trip down and he met me in the airport. It was so nice to see him again and we stood there hugging and kissing for a good while. We detangled and headed to his mom's house. She was a wonderful lady. She tells it like it is (like me), and really likes going the extra mile for people. She was also visibly in pain and quite ill. We chit-chatted and went to the bedroom to get my things in order. XBD closed the door behind us and we were intimate. It was almost awkward at first but as we familiarized ourselves, it was just us again.

The days I spent there were a blur of wonderful family moments. I met all of his immediate family members, and a few uncles and cousins too. I got along with everyone and XBD has since told me how much they all love me. Being around his family has given me another reason to believe that he loves me. They all made me feel very much at home around them. But I also felt like they were on good behavior on my behalf. Houses had been cleaned in my honor, dinners had been created and served, and children were on their best behavior. I pulled a sister-in-law aside and told her how much I appreciated everything, but they really didn't need to go out of their way for me. She laughed and said, "oh yes we did, made it clear that you were coming, he wanted us to meet you, and we better make sure we act right and not embarrass him!". I laughed too, but it made me realize that he wasn't worried about his family liking me at all, he was worried about me liking his family. But of course, I did.

When it came time for me to leave, I went to XBD's mom and thanked her for welcoming me into her home and she got teary-eyed and said, "I don't want you to leave! Can't you get a job around here and live here?" It was touching, because I knew that she didn't want me to leave because she didn't want XBD to leave, and if I stayed he would stay. Even him mom could tell that he loved me and wanted to be with me. She also expressed how sad he would be after I left and then added, "I can go get the minister now!". XBD and I looked at each other incredulously.

XBD and an uncle took me to the airport and we stopped in an airport bar for a couple drinks. We had a really nice chat, just talking about when we were children and how life has changed since then. When XBD got up, his uncle told me that he could really tell he loves me because he had never heard XBD tell any girl that he loved her before, and he had heard him tell me that a half-dozen times. He later told XBD that he was going to make sure he has a clean suit handy for the wedding.