This weekend, I hope, will be seen as an historical one in later years. "I am through traveling." I really, really like her, and I want this to work out. I want this to be the thing. However, I also want to continue on my own paths without losing them completely. I am falling in love.
We met again Saturday and drove together to Coney Island. We walked along the boardwalk, held hands, talked about all sorts of things; our experiences, everything. She is very easy to talk to, very open, as I am. We walked with our feet in the water, played backgammon on the sand. Later, we walked briefly through the lights and noise of Astroland and ate dinner - shish kebab and sausage - again on the boardwalk. It was getting cold after dark, and we drove home.
At length we reached her house upstate. Lots of space, large backyard. She busily prepared the couch for me and gave me a toothbrush/paste to use. I was exhausted myself, even though it was only about 1:30 AM, unusually early for me to go to bed, but the stimulation with her over the two days had been quite a bit. I wanted to sleep but had difficulty at first. It was hot, I was sweating. The couch was very soft, something I'm not used to. I tossed and turned for approx. 2 hours before falling into a restful sleep.
I woke up to sounds upstairs at about 9:20 AM, feeling well rested and ready for a new day. I wondered where her mind was, how she was feeling about us, and if my discomfort last night had been the result of more than just fatigue on her part. My concerns were put aside very shortly after meeting her in the kitchen; her greeting embrace and kiss told me I was wanted there. She had been trying to get her Palm V sync cradle hooked up to her new PC laptop, but it wasn't happening (COM1 busy??? COM2 chosen as default, but unable to read cradle). I tried helping her out (she's unfamiliar with Windows) but to little avail. Hrmph. But we did end up spending a very long while playing on the floor. It was heavenly. I feel steadily drawn to this woman, with each hour my love for her grows, my admiration for her grows, and my sense that all this is reciprocated grows too. We eventually managed to get up, but not for several hours. I showered and she began preparing lunch: parmesan/basil/olive omelets. Mmmm. I wiped down the table outside and set the places.
Ok, tasty lunch.... nap time. Nice.
Dinner. She said she wanted to give me something to eat before I left; it really seemed very important to her to have dinner with me. Very cleverly, she got me involved in the cooking of it. She started by asking what I'd like to eat, then how I'd like it prepared, then what kind of sauce for the broccoli, etc., till finally I was composing a broccoli/walnut/carrot stir fry with garlic, soy, vinegar and sugar, which didn't come out half bad; and she explained she was exploring new ground in a relationship. Apparently her ex had leaned on her heavily as far as the work part of a marriage goes - driving, cooking, paying bills, shopping, etc. were all her responsibility; it was when she began saying no to this that the problems and imminent breakup of the marriage arose. The subtle and gentle art with which she coerced me into cooking was genius. I plan to cook a nice Indian cuisine meal for her next weekend. I think she values something like what happened tonight immensely.
We got done with dinner just in time, and she drove me to the Metro North station. We caught a few minutes of a beautiful sunset, and stood together on the platform, I obediently keeping my affections "civilized", for she is known in town, has patients, etc. She whispered to me the things she would like to do... That, I thought, was simply a lovely way to say good-bye.