Five years of awesome

Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of B's and my first date, and I was reminiscing about the time we spent together before our first date.

You might say that our relationship developed during a series of after-work happy-hour outings to local bars, back when you could smoke in bars, back when one of us did smoke.

I always drank Coke, Sprite, or water because I was a driving commuter. B was a Bud guy.

The first time that B asked me out, I had to say no because I was joining a group of coworkers for a harbor cruise that night. We were going on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Wasn't he going, I asked. He said he wasn't because he got seasick on boats.

After LS and I boarded the (disappointing, dark, and dingy) vessel, I saw him. He showed up in spite of the threat of illness at sea. I stopped worrying that our boat would sink at any moment and realized that the night was full of potential.

We spent the whole evening together, talking and laughing. I knew from time spent together at bars that I was interested in getting to know B better, but I wasn't sure if we were a good match for each other. He seemed impulsive and much braver than I and had lived much more raucously than I. I wondered if he would be too wild for me and if I would be too sedate for him. But that night on the barely seaworthy boat, I realized that there was something between us that I needed to explore further.

Later that night, while I was in the ladies room, B told LS, "I like your friend." She said, "I know." He replied, "No, I really like her." I still smile when I think about that exchange, even though I wasn't part of it.

At the end of the night, when he tried to put us in a cab and we stubbornly refused and insisted we could take the bus home, he asked if I would go on a date with him. I smiled and told him that I didn't date smokers. He smoked his last cigarette that night, and we had our first date the following Friday, an outing to a driving range and a local burger place.

And in case you're wondering, he managed to avoid seasickness the entire evening. And in the last five years, his wildness has rubbed off a little on me, and the equilibrium that characterizes my life has evened his keel a bit.