our story [part 7]

Read Part 6 here.  Or if you're a newcomer, you can read the whole story in the "Love Story" tab at the top.

I purposely showed up at Tim’s house 15 minutes late.  A projector was all set up in the front room, and I was surprised to realize that this movie night would consist of Tim, Tim’s roommates, and me.

Unbeknownst to me, before I had even showed up, Tim had told his roommates that they “could feel free to leave during the middle of the movie if they wanted to.”  Thus, one by one, Tim’s roommates left to go “do homework,” or some other such nonsense.

That left Tim and I sitting alone on the couch.  I found myself paying more attention to Tim than I was to the movie.  I couldn’t tell if it was only my imagination that he kept inching closer to me.  Or maybe it was me moving closer to him.  I wasn’t really sure, but somehow we ended up sitting just millimeters apart.

Suddenly I found it hard to breathe.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted this yet.  I had to do something to break the tension I was feeling inside.

“Hey look what I can do,” I said goofily.  I raised my hands up in front of the projector and started making shadow puppets on the wall.  Much to my surprise, he joined right in, and we each started forming our fingers into different animals, displayed magnificently right in front of the movie we were “watching.”

We started giggling, and he started making silly comments that kept me laughing.  I was pleasantly surprised to see this goofy side of him.  I’d seen his sarcastic, teasing side, and I’d seen his quiet, serious side, but I’d never seen this silly side.  I liked it.

Eventually the movie ended but we just kept making silly comments and giggling quietly on the couch. 

Somehow the conversation turned to music, and I asked him to show me one of his songs.

“Ok, but I have one requirement.”

“Ok,” I said.

“You have to sing with me.”

He ignored my protests and picked up his guitar in the still lowly-lit room.  Word by word, note by note he taught me one of the songs he’d written.  I sang tentatively at first, but as I grew more comfortable with the song, we each added harmonies to the verses and the chorus.

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

He smiled and said something about how he liked it even better when I was singing with him.

I looked at a clock and was shocked to realize how late it was.

“Oh, I need to go,” I said.

“Ok, but do you want to record the song with me tomorrow?”

I hesitated inside, unsure of what I wanted.  “Sure,” I said finally, smiling softly.

He walked me out to my car in the darkness and gave me a hug.

"See you tomorrow then."


Continue to Part 8.