Long Relationships

Today I have the pleasure of posting up the story of Randi and Scooter, two of my favourite people on 451Press. I hope you’ll enjoy their story as much as I did.

My first real boyfriend was a very strange man. He wouldn’t wear jeans (and all I wear is jeans), he was obsessed with anime porn and martial arts, and he had tons of plans that never came to fruition. But, I loved him! I moved in with him and a bunch of other college students my second year in college and, by the third year, he and I were living alone.

That’s when things started crumbling. I did what any woman in love would do – I panicked. I could feel us unraveling and I didn’t want to be alone. One day he came to me and said, “Randi – I’ve met someone. The thing is, she’s exactly like you used to be…before you became a bitch.� Talk about painful!

I was upset, especially since his new crush was 16 and he was 23, so I tried to get pregnant. Yeah, I’m a moron – but, in my defense, I was a 20 year old moron! Fortunately I was unable to get pregnant. We were still living together, however, because neither of us could afford to live alone. Thankfully he never brought his new twennie-bopper to the apartment. One day my mother looked at me and said, “I know this guy you should meet. I work with him. His name is Scooter.� There are a few things you should know:

1. My mother HATED my last boyfriend, and would do anything to get me away from him.
2. I have extremely low self esteem.
3. I had NO plans on dating a guy named “Scooter� – I mean, come on!

“Show him my picture,� I said, “If he doesn’t run, I’ll meet him.�

A week or so later I had borrowed my ex’s car to go to my mother’s house. I was availing myself of her much better water pressure and taking a shower when I heard a deep voice boom up the stairs. “HELLO?� I finished my shower, got dressed, and braided my moderately long hair into two braids, Wednesday Addams style. Yeah, I know, extremely sexy. I walked down the stairs to see my mother’s friend’s daughter sitting on the couch.

“Is there a guy in the kitchen?� I asked quietly.

“Yes.� She replied.

“Is he…cute?�

“Ummm…I dunno…I guess.� I got worried and then realized that the girl was 10 or so and was definitely not a good judge of adult cuteness.

I bravely walked into the kitchen and saw a guy sitting in the chair. He had hair that was so dark that it was almost blue, a goatee, and….suspenders?! Yeah – there was NO way I was dating a guy named “Scooter� who wore suspenders.

He was introduced to me as Scott, “but we call him Scooter�, my mom said. I sat down and she explained that she’d asked him over to help her pick out her first computer. Riiighht. We started talking and I quickly discovered that this man had no problem listening to me, and debating with me. A lot of men that I knew would listen, but wouldn’t really hear what I was saying. This guy was doing both.

A short time later and my mother was calling for some pizza for us all. Scott volunteered to go get it and I said that I’d go with him. We drove down to the local pizza place and were told that the pizza’s needed ten more minutes or so. I guess, in hindsight, I should thank the pizza guy, because it was sitting in a little wooden booth looking into his eyes where things inside of me went, “click – this one�.

A few hours later and I was on the phone with my ex. He was screaming at me that he needed the car back in order to bring his girlfriend back home.

“If I don’t get her back in an hour she’s going to be past curfew!� Yeah – let’s not have THAT happen.

I was extremely upset. Here I was, being flirted with by this great guy who, once you got past the suspenders, was fairly cute, and in one fell swoop this guy learned that I didn’t have my own vehicle and that I was still living with my ex. Great. I immediately felt as though my life were spiraling out of control. I started bawling.

Suddenly these strong arms surrounded me in one of the greatest hugs that I have ever had. I felt warm, secure, and comforted all at the same time. I felt as though I were home. Scott followed me back to the college (about a half an hour or so away) and helped me drop off the car. We walked around for a bit, holding hands, then he bundled me up into the truck and was driving me back to my mom’s.

“I showed you my apartment – can I see where you live?� If there was ever a come-on, it’s a line like that. In all honesty, I had no idea how far things would go, but I definitely wanted them to go somewhere! I had felt horrible ever since I’d been dumped at the age of 20 for someone younger (I mean, come on!), and this was the type of thing I felt I needed to make me feel a little bit better.

Scott’s eyebrow shot up and he took me to his trailer (hey, he was a single man LOL). We sat talking on the couch and the next thing you know we were in the bedroom. A few hours later and he dropped me off at my mom’s (I was borrowing her car for a few days).

“I’ve got to take my grandparents down to Mass, but I’ll call you when I get back, okay?� he asked.

“Yeah – definitely.� I drove back to my apartment in a daze, wondering if this older man (he was 26 to my 20) was truly going to call me or if I was just a one night stand. I really liked him, so I hoped it wasn’t a one night stand.

I was met at the door of the apartment by my ex, looking more furious than I had ever seen him. He was so mad that he took my copy of the key to the car and bent it all to hell so that I couldn’t drive the car anymore. He demanded to know where I’d been, and why I hadn’t had the car back right after supper time. I told him that I’d met a very nice guy and that we had been getting to know each other.

“Oh yeah?� he asked, looking somewhat baffled, “well…well, how do you know that it’s going to go anywhere?� That was it. I was furious.

“I just fucked him, didn’t I? I’m going to bed. GOOD NIGHT.� Even now, I believe that my statement was almost equal to the “before you became a bitch� comment. Almost.

Scott did call me when he got back, and the next weekend he was helping me move my stuff out of my apartment and into my mother’s house. A few months after that and I was installed in his trailer (which is when his suspenders mysteriously disappeared), and a few months after THAT (six months after we met, to be precise), we discovered that we had gotten pregnant even though I was on birth control (long story, but hormones are to blame).

Our son is now almost 7 years old and our daughter is 3 ½ . We’ve gone through some tough times – the death of his mother, buying our home, and the death of my grandmother to mention a few – and we’ve had some great joys. I’ve discovered that marriage is definitely something you have to work on, but that the joys are worth the challenges. One day I asked Scott when he knew that he loved me. He gave me one of his cocky grins that I love and he replied, “I knew I loved you at the pizza place.� It’s not a line worthy of any movie, but it melted my heart because I felt the same way. Even better is the fact that, eight years later, I can still step into his arms and feel as though I’m home.