we finally arrived back at our apartment building Eric walked me up to the third floor. “I was going to come stay at your place tonight” I said in a hopeful tone. “Not tonight. You have had your entire world upended in the past forty eight hours and I really want you to have some time to yourself to process everything and make sure you are ok with all of this.” I looked at him with apparent concern. “Don’t worry babe. I am not going anywhere. I love you and want to be with you but before you commit to learning about my world I want to make sure that you are ready for it. Take tonight to yourself and go to work tomorrow. I will talk to you when you get home. Ok?” “I guess” I said in a jokingly unsatisfied tone. “Thank you again for going on a picnic with me.” Eric laughed. “No, thank you. That was some picnic!” I pulled out my keys and entered my apartment. Eric was right, the last two days had been quite the bombshell. Now that I was back in my apartment by myself I felt tired. Some relaxation was in order so I changed into this evening’s comfy clothes and headed to the kitchen for my nightly glass of sanity. As I pulled the bottle of cabernet from the pantry I couldn’t help but notice the dark red tone of this intoxicating liquid. I wondered if the feeling of happiness and relief I received from my evening glass of wine was anything like the pleasure Eric experienced when the blood touched his lips. I ended up drinking the entire bottle of wine that night as I watched reality television and tried to wind down from the excitement of the last couple days. Watching the shows I couldn’t help but think how these plots paled in comparison to the story that I was now a part of.
The next morning I became painfully aware that an entire bottle of wine in one night was probably not the right amount for me. My head was pounding and I was fighting a bad case of cotton-mouth but I pushed my way through the morning and not much later was pulling into the parking lot at work ready to begin the daily grind. My life was not very exciting working in the sourcing department of a wholesale apparel company but I did mostly enjoy my job and I had a great boss which is more then many can say and made me feel lucky. I grabbed a cup of coffee on the way to my desk and tried to slide into my chair without too much notice. “Jessica!” My boss was calling for me with a volume that I could feel in my teeth. “Yes Dawn, coming.” I put the rest of my stuff down but decided to keep my coffee with me as I walked into her office and sat down in the chair across from her desk. “So, how did it go this weekend?” “What?” I looked at her in a panic. Why was she asking that? What did she know? “Didn’t you have that big date with Eric planned this weekend?” “Oh yeah, right. It went really well thanks. In fact, I hate to admit it but I am still a little hungover this morning. Sorry.” “That’s ok. As long as you get the work done I won’t bust your chops about an extended weekend with your incredibly hot boyfriend. Speaking of which, when is that boy going to propose to you. The two of you would be perfect together.” “Dawn, we’ve only been together for about six months. Let’s give the boy some time before we chase him off with our pyscho ok” I said as I waved my finger in half-joking disapproval. “Ok, Ok. Back to work then I guess.” I left her office and returned to my chair. I had a feeling I was going to be a little distracted today but I tried to jump in and get my orders done before the day got away from me.
As the work day wrapped up and I thought forward to my chance to see Eric again I knew that I had no doubts. I wanted him. I wanted to be with him. Whatever that might mean was something I was willing to accept. I had never been so happy and felt so complete as I did