Melanie had to work for Valentine’s Day, so instead we went out last night. She had heard good things about Tootsie, and wanted to see it. Other than movies that I’m a huge fan of, I don’t bother to tell her if I’ve seen it, because then her curiosity to know what happens takes over. It’s like a fun harmless way of testing my future knowledge, but ultimately it takes us both out of the experience.
When she realized that Michael (the name didn’t help) was lying to Julie about the very nature of who he was, she leaned over and whispered, “she’s going to be mad. I know I would be.” She then gave me a flirty angry look.
“I can ruin the ending for you if you want,” I whispered back and stuck my tongue out.
“You’ve seen this before?” Her eyes were wide with wonder, and I realized that I’d unleashed the beast I’d been so good about in the future.
I thought about whispering in my best deep southern accent, “I’m not Dorothy Michaels, I’m her brother,” but I didn’t really want ruin the movie for her.
“Everyone dies,” I whispered, and turned back to the screen.
We hadn’t really had a playful date in a long time. In the last year, the romance hadn’t died, but it had consumed the time that we had together, and hadn’t left room for the flirty and or friendly. It had been even worse since my transfusions, without us having a way to release the romantic and sexual tension together.
After dinner we walked the short distance to my car which struggled to start in the cold. We let the heater blast, and I offered to let her wait inside the theater while I warmed the engine, but instead she put both of her hands into my jacket pocket, and her head on my shoulder.
I brought her to Kitty’s for dinner. For a Sunday night it was pretty busy, but there may have been a fair amount of people like us getting Valentine’s in early.
“You’ve been here before…” she said to me when we first were seated.
I hadn’t told her, so I was amazed that she knew.
“You have a look, when you’re going into a place for the first time since traveling, where you look around, and you assess the differences. I’m guessing this isn’t that different?”
I laughed, because she hit the nail on the head. I’d been here randomly throughout my childhood, and even a couple times as a young adult, and it looked basically the same.
I started to explain that my grandparents lived not far from here in my childhood, and she listened. She loved hearing about it, not because it was some glimpse into the future, most of my stories were pretty standard even compared to her childhood. I didn’t tell her about Playstation or the internet.
After dinner, we went for a ride around, I showed her the house I would be born in, my parents were currently living there. My dad’s car was in the driveway. Then I passed a building I hadn’t expected to exist yet, although I should have known.
“I was the first of my friends to turn 18, and when my friends Wes and another kid from high school were all 18, we drove up this way…” She didn’t just like the stories of me being a cute little kid, she liked that there had been a bit of a rebellious sexual deviant in my time. That was always the phrase she’d giggle and say when I told her a story.
I told her how that building, when I was 18 was a strip-club, and my friends and I went there. I told her it was the first time I saw tits in real life, and the first time I’d seen a woman fully naked in real life. I told her how we got Wes’s Volvo up to 100 MPH on 495 and that the car shook and we thought we were going to die. I told her about how the next day had been Easter, and I’d told my parents that I’d gone on a double date with some girls from Matignon High, and how Sam called me out and said ‘girls from Matignon don’t wear enough glitter to get it all over your face.
She laughed and when we got home did her best impression of a stripper. When we were too close to consummating our marriage, she climbed off my lap, and from opposite sides of the room we watched each other, and had the most intimate moment since my transfusion.
It was amazing, but I couldn’t wait for blood tests to be available.
Michael Christopher Cole 
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