The One

We met shortly after college at a wedding of all things.  She was dating someone else within my circle of friends. He was not really a friend of mine but rather just circulated in the same group.  Was part of the same academic department at school as both the bride and groom.  Remarkably she and I had not met before especially as she had been dating Eric for better part of a year by the time of the wedding that placed us sitting across a table from one another.  The remarkable thing is that I can only remember a few… highlights (for lack of a better word) of that night.  I remember Eric sitting down across from me at the reception trying to illicit some help because he “was surely losing her.”  It was an odd conversation for a couple of reasons not the least of which was that Eric were not at all close and the one she had been talking with for a fair bit of the evening had been me…

Actually, I need to caveat that because I honestly don’t recall what I had talked with her about that night (or even if it had been all that long.)  I do distinctly remember that it was very obvious that she and Eric were not enjoying the evening together (something to do with Eric not making room reservations even though the wedding was quite a way from anywhere.)  Eric was darn right pouty about the situation and she was just plane indifferent to him.  I didn’t have much help to offer him as, frankly, I was stunned by her from the moment I a saw her. 

I know that sounds very cliché but I can honestly say that I thought she was “the one” from that night on.  The part of the interaction I recall most was a period of time where we were sitting at the table together (these were long straight banquet tables and we were on either side of the table she being slightly to my left.)  We were both drinking Champagne.  On the table, there were plastic cups of Hershey’s chocolate kisses.  Somehow, while we sat there and chatted, we began tossing the chocolate kisses at each other.

 I remember her eyes.  Her eyes were this vibrant mix of blues and greens that themselves seemed to be telling you a story with every glance.  To this day (approaching 20 years from then) I can picture one particularly, slightly sideways glance that followed a chocolate kiss salvo.  It was like in one ever so brief look she let me see her… her strength, her love of life, her mischievous flirtatious self, along with her fragility and a complexity that would take me years to really know.  While I knew then that she could be it, I also knew, in one look, that I was in way over my head.

I don’t see that glimmer too often any more.  Nearly twenty years together and the occasional insights are more familiar and, somewhat, less overwhelming as they were on that first day.  I still know that she is the one and I still, every once in a while, am reminded that I am still in over my head but I would not be with anyone else.