“Romantic love
is one of the most powerful of all human experiences.
It is definitely more powerful than the sex drive.”
~ Dr. Helen Fisher
Houston was almost a 4 hour drive from Dallas. That was a lot of time to think about what had just happened.
The last thing I remembered was that I walked her out to her car and she kissed me? I mean I never had so much fun in 45 minutes, but this was not a “date” was it? We just met for fun… right? And why did I say, “you kissed me” to her anyway? That was stupid!
All I could think about now was that I was headed to Florida and I would probably never see her again? WTF! My mind was racing. Why was I suddenly obsessing over this girl?
Brilliant idea. I will send her a text! What should I say? “Thank you?” Duh… come on cowboy, you can do better than that!
I finally typed out, “You are beautiful. Glad we met. Xoxo. K” and hit SEND.
What if she doesn’t reply? She is going to think “stalker” and change her phone number!
No reply…
“She is back at work,” I thought to myself, “give her a minute.”
Finally she replied, “I’m very impressed with you”
Whew! Now I felt better so I text her back, “it was hard to leave u”
(pssssst… hey cowboy! Can you really drive a 15,000 lb RV with your knee, and text at the same time?).
She was back at work, but she was able to call me between clients. So, we picked up right where we left off at lunch. We talked about everything. We laughed about our bad “Match.com” dates. We poked fun at our ex’s and our divorce dramas. And, we laughed and laughed.
It was surreal really. I mean, I had only met her for 45 minutes, and now we are sharing our intimate life stories, meanwhile I am rolling down a Texas highway in my RV? The entire time, I could still picture her beautiful face and all the silly expressions she makes when she gets into telling her story.
She had to get back to work, so I “threw out a dare” to see if she would come visit me somewhere on my road trip. After all, her nick name on Match.com was “fearless.”
“Maybe,” she said with a laugh, and then she said, “gotta go cowboy!”
I was still a couple hours from Houston. I was looking forward to visiting my old friend Deb. She was a classmate of mine from grade school and we had not seen each other since then! I definitely needed a woman’s perspective. My primitive male “reptilian” brain was not allowing me to engage in any higher-level thought whatsoever.
I still could not stop thinking about lunch today. I did not expect to meet anyone on this trip. That was not the plan. The purpose of my journey was to “avoid dating” and the complications of relationships, and spend some time alone to think and explore myself. Suddenly everything had changed.
I had never experienced so much attraction to anyone before. It was so unexpected. Now all I could think about was seeing her again. How? Where? When? And, then what? She lives in Dallas, Texas! She has a career and 3 small children! “I hope you know what you are doing, cowboy!” I said to myself.
A few minutes later she text back, “I want to meet you on the road for sure.”
I guess my road trip plans are changing again. Now I am REALLY in “trouble!”
“… you’ll have to fall in love at least once in your life,
or Paris has failed to rub off on you.”
~ E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
Meet me in Savannah 