Our Story From His Perspective...
Our love story isn’t one that happened at first sight. Loan made me work for it…and she made me work HARD…
We first met on a blind date, thanks to our friends Maria Nguyen and Franz Quiambao, who put the meeting together. Really, it was more of a blind mixer to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Maria and Franz met up for happy hour and invited us to join them. Without Loan or I knowing, they bought us a pitcher of Margarita after dinner, then promptly exited, leaving the two of us to finish the whole pitcher by ourselves. We got to learn a little about each other, particularly our tolerance to tequila, that evening.
We got to know more about each other as we went on several dates over the course of the next six months. Sadly, these meetings were mostly uneventful. The romance in this relationship remained one-sided. What can I say? She was just not into me.
It had been six months and my 37th birthday celebration was quickly approaching. My now fiancée declined her invitation to my party. Feeling extremely sad and depressed that Loan could not be there with me, and had not expressed any fondness of me up to that point, I had reached the edge. I decided that I was going to move on and place her in the “friend zone.”
Just as I had worked out in my head that a romantic relationship between Loan and I was not going to happen, she asked to take me out to dinner. She wanted to make amends for missing my birthday party. To say that I was excited is an understatement. Maybe there was hope for us yet.
I went a little overboard for my birthday dinner date with Loan. I dusted off the finest suit I owned (of the ones that still fit), got a haircut, rented a new car, and even went to the gym before our big date. I had to bring my “A” game. We decided on going to Ritters, one of my favorite Cajun restaurants located in Huntington Beach, for dinner. Afterwards, Loan said she wanted to walk around and go to the pier. For the first time since we met, we were going to spend time outside of a restaurant.
As we walked down Main Street, a promoter handed us a free pass to a club on the second floor of his bar. To my surprise, Loan said, “Let’s check it out.” Ok. I guess we were going clubbing. After getting something to drink, we hit the dance floor. The music was great, so we were really into it. I felt like a Jabbawockee, I was cutting a rug so hard. It had been some time since I went to a club, so I forgot how crowded and HOT it gets in those places. I mean, it was like a Bikram workout. If you know me, you know that I have a perspiration problem. I sweat… A LOT. And I did not want to take my coat off so I could have both of my hands free to continue getting my Jabbawockee on. Whatever it took to keep her interested. As we kept dancing, I kept sweating. At a certain point, I was so drenched, I could have won a wet t-shirt contest. The discomfort was unbearable, but I did not want to leave. It was nice having her with me, even if we could not hear what each other was saying. Loan noticed that I was starting to feel uncomfortably hot and asked, “Are you ok?” I replied, “Yes, I’m fine. I think I just need to go to the restroom to take a breather.” She placed her hand on my back to proceed to the restroom. What she felt at that moment must have been one her most unpleasant experiences in dampness, as she immediately realized the torture I was enduring to remain on the dance floor with her.
In the rest room, I proceeded to give myself a mini-shower with cold water to wash myself off and cool the hell down. The sweat was out of control. As I walked toward Loan after exiting the restroom, I noticed that she had a different look in her eyes. A smile slowly grew on her face. For the first time I felt that she was happy to see me. For the first time, I felt that she actually liked me in a more-than-friends type of way. She asked if I was ok, and if I was up for another drink. I wasn’t going to turn down that opportunity. Then, an act of endearment I never expected. She took my hand, then led me to the dance floor. We had so much fun, dancing the rest of the night away.
Whether it was out of pity or genuine care, a fire between us had sparked. The heat I felt was palpable, literally. I ended up using half a roll from the paper towel dispenser to cool myself down that night. From that point on, I was all in with her. Loan had woken up from her romantic slumber, finally noticing me. We took our time, slowly cultivating our relationship into the vineyard it is today. Now we look forward to it bearing fruits shortly after our wedding.
The moral of the story? Most married couples have a special moment or event that brought them together to thank for their love. Mine, evidently, is hyper-hydrosis.
