Sweet Sixteen

August 6, 1995, some Dude I worked with (at the restaurant my brother, Mark, and I got a job at on his 16th birthday) finally asked me to be his girlfriend. It had been a long time coming. Since the day Mark and I started working there this Dude and he became fast friends. I didn't pay him much mind.

Mark and his friend, let's just call him Nick, would hang out at the house, cruise around in his Honda or my Dad's Honda and try to avoid the normal boy trouble. His friend was 17 at the time. Let's not say how old I was. They would hang out after work and party play board games and drink beer milk.

I was into dating this other boy we all worked with until the day we all figured out he was a jerk. In fact, Nick figured it out quickly. The work crew had planned a party get together to celebrate Nick's birthday. Everyone was there having a great time. Nick was nice enough to come to my rescue in a bedroom when the other boy decided he didn't understand what No meant. I remember seeing the boy fly across the room. I should have known then that Nick liked me. Instead, I was clueless.

So clueless that I found out later Mark's friend had been asking him for months to "hook me up with your sister." Mark's response, apparently, was always of the "eww, that's gross" kind. 

So, the Summer continued with Mark and Nick always hanging out with me and my friends. It was a fun summer. We would watch movies and have popcorn and play games (no really, we would play board games in that circle of friends). One night, mid summer, Nick gave me a ride home from work. On the way we chatted and chatted until he finally flirted with the thought of maybe going out one night together. He was seeing someone else, though, so I flirted back with a "well, if you weren't already taken, then who knows," kinda talk.

That's all it took. Nick raced home and called the girl and told her it was over, whatever "it" was. He called me later and asked me out.

My Dad was hilarious when Nick and I started dating. As Mark's friend he was allowed upstairs to hang out in Mark's room. We all laugh about one day, after we began dating, when I was at work and Nick came over to the house. Dad was taking a nap on the couch. He put one foot on the staircase to go upstairs to see Mark and my Dad opened one eye and said "where you going, boy?" I wasn't even home! Nick never again went upstairs. (Stick to that if my Dad asks, ok? Never again did he go upstairs, wink wink.)

Oh, and that's all it took for me, too. From that point on I was Nick's girl.

And Sixteen Years later? Yup, still.

I love you, Dude.