He found me on Yahoo.\u00a0 I was in the process of separating from my husband and moving to Denver, he lived in Colorado Springs.\u00a0 He assured me it was fairly close by.\u00a0\u00a0 We chatted back and forth over several weeks. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I first arrived in Denver, I knew no one other than my landlord\/roommate and we didn\u2019t seem to click very well. The internet was my lifeline to family and friends, and he was someone who was close by when others were far away.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe it was the high altitude combined with the glass of wine, but I found myself agreeing to a date.\u00a0 It would be the First After since my separation.<\/p>\n
We talked about our date \u2013 he would plan it \u2013 I just need to come dressed and ready.\u00a0 I was trying to figure out what to wear \u2013 he recommended, among other things, my red bra. I agreed.<\/p>\n
When the day came, I dressed carefully \u2013 not too dressy, not too casual.\u00a0 Took extra time to primp and do all those \u201cextras\u201d you only do for a date or a doctor\u2019s visit. His car was in the shop, so I drove 90 minutes to where he lived. When I first arrived, it looked like the courtyard of Melrose Place.\u00a0 Upon closer inspection, perhaps Melrose Place if it became Section 8 housing.\u00a0 But I had driven all this way so I persevered and knocked on the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was shorter than I pictured, disheveled, in a sweatshirt and jeans \u2013 a ball cap crammed on his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just woke up,\u201d<\/i> he said. \u201cGive me a second.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
I stood in the doorway and watched as he shuffled through some papers.\u00a0 Wait, not papers.\u00a0 Coupons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich do you prefer?\u201d<\/i> he asked.\u00a0 \u201cChinese buffet or pizza?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Since the Chinese buffet was evidently 2 for 1, we decided to do that.\u00a0 If you are going to go first class, better go all the way.\u00a0 The plans for after dinner were just as carefully thought out \u2013 so we ended up going back to his place to watch a DVD.\u00a0\u00a0 He pulled up his sweatshirt and asked me to scratch his back.\u00a0 Hrmm.\u00a0 Well, I wanted to see how the movie ended, so I did. \u00a0I thought maybe it was a move, but he thanked me and pulled his shirt back down.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t offer to return the favor.\u00a0 We sat very chastely on his couch and watched William Dafoe act crazy on screen.<\/p>\n
When the movie ended, he turned to me and asked. \u201cSo can I see your bra?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
I laughed in surprise. \u201cIs that your move?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 36<\/i>,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have time for moves.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re 36,\u201d <\/i>I countered.\u00a0 \u201cYou better make time.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to tell you that I got up and left Section 8 of Melrose Place with my head held high and my dignity intact.\u00a0 But it was my First After, I\u2019d driven a long way and worked up a lot of nerve to get that far. And I had worn my red bra. But let\u2019s pretend I did.\u00a0 Deal?\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n
Let’s just say that sometimes the best part of a First After is that you have nowhere to go but up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He found me on Yahoo.\u00a0 I was in the process of separating from my husband and moving to Denver, he lived in Colorado Springs.\u00a0 He assured me it was fairly close by.\u00a0\u00a0 We chatted back and forth over several weeks. \u00a0\u00a0 When I first arrived in Denver, I knew no one other than my landlord\/roommate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[23,9,22,16,10,24],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dating","tag-colorado-springs","tag-dating-2","tag-denver","tag-first-afters","tag-online-dating","tag-yahoo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2UnPK-23","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}