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.