Sunday (cont.), Ain't It Funny?

I now know I need to name Ex-Factor, as he may or may not be back in my life, and in watching Sex and the City seasons 1 & 2 over the weekend, I decided to refer to him (Ex) as Big. This Bradshaw too has the guy who was so right and perhaps wrong for her periodically through my life here in LA. He's not quite "Big" in that fictional series. Candace Bushnell referred to him, “He was one of those New York guys with a big personality — you just notice him as soon as he walks in the room,” and “I called him Mr. Big because he was like a big man on campus.” 


Like Candace, this is my Big-gie, that's how I'll refer to him from now on. The man who acts like big-man-on-campus, who also lights up a room just by entering it.

Back to me and Biggie deciding to meet up and catch up for a drink now that he's back in town.  


I showed up at his new (old) place around 9:30p and this cool, Sunday evening.  As I knocked on the door, my stomach drops.  Play it cool. I knock again upon no answer and lean in the doorway. Yeah, that's cool, or I convince myself it is.  A woman's voice responds from the other side, "Hello?"  Shit, did he tell me the wrong unit?, I question.  No, just Biggie playing jokes again. (Hilarious)  I barely get one foot in the door as he tackles me with a bear-like hug then immediately says, with an equally gigantic smile, "You look great, I thought we were just grabbing a drink? You're dressed up."  I wasn't 'dressed up', I was somewhere in between casual and cool - I mean come on, I had to look somewhat hot!  V-neck t-shirt bearing a little cleavage, scarf so that I wasn't bearing too much cleavage, sexy bootcut jeans, boots and a blazer cause it was cold.  He was wearing the red Revolver shirt I had seen him in so many times before, jeans and boots.  

He shows me around his apartment that is eerily familiar to the one from 4 years prior - but better - despite lack of furniture.  (See the shirt in the picture above, it was hanging on the doorknob which means he wore it the night before. SIDEBAR, I picked it out when we were dating.)  On his tour, he referred to things like how I would know them.  Or "you'll help me right, you're good at this stuff." I even said to him, "Your scent isn't here yet.  You truly haven't moved in.  Your last place had your scent."  I mean we were at the same complex, different unit.  Finally I got the ball rolling and said, "Let's get to getting, I thought we were going to grab a drink." (Plus I couldn't stand in his apartment anymore reminiscing since I was making me slightly nervous).   He grabbed a hoodie and we jumped into my car and headed to a bar up the street.


No one was there.  I joked "Um, where should we sit?" and he made some joke that reminded me what I liked about him.  He says, "I want to hear all about you" though I protested since he just had moved back but he insisted it was about me first. Then we talked about him.  Interchanging jokes, hugs, laughter, I finally say non-challantly, "So what brings you back to LA?"  (Knowing it's cause his relationship didn't work out mainly), but preface with "Please, I'm not asking you to tell me anything that's none of my business." He says, "It just didn't work out.  It wasn't right for me to be there.  It feels good to be home."  We chatted a bit more about it but I didn't want to pry too much...in essence she wasn't "it."  


Laughter flowed and I was having a blast with him.  We weren't in the past bubble, we were very much in the present day bubble.  In between laughter there would be comments about how we're still the same mixed with moments of blushing and difficulty forming sentences as our minds wandered outside the "friend zone."  "Is it hot in here?"  Being that it was a Sunday night and I had to work the following day, we paid the tab and left.  Biggie didn't want the night to end, he asked that I come in for a bit.  Knowing it could go one way or another, I decided to take a chance. 

We sat there on the floor talking (he doesn't have a couch yet) and he says it was like the last time we saw one another (before moved across the US).  It was true, we had sat on the floor talking and packing up his life.  He says to me, "I wanted to kiss you so badly that night.  You have no idea how badly I wanted to kiss you."  I was a bit shocked (but not really) being that he was leaving LA for her, but yet he was thinking about kissing me.  I said, "I had a feeling but that wouldn't have been right." He says, "We were good."  I said, "No I was good, you had a hidden agenda you couldn't act on."  While we sat there in a momentary pause, and he's holding my hand looking at me and says, "I feel like I'm in 8th grade all over again."  I ask him if he's nervous but asks if I am, "No."  

   ...and then he kissed me...