Re: Moments -prologue.
Chapter One
“Each meeting occurs at the precise moment for which it was meant.
Usually, when it will have the greatest impact on our lives.”
― Nadia Scrieva, Fathoms of Forgiveness
He had picked to meet her at his favorite coffee place for a few reasons. Vinnie wasn’t a timid man, but he always got the shakes when his adrenaline got going. Vinnie knew that he would be jittery when he met her for the first time. Also he decided on a public place, in case she was crazy, that he knew well enough to be comfortable in. Everyone here was a little jittery so if his hands shook a little bit hopefully she wouldn’t notice.
So he picked the coffee place. His coffee place. “Maybe it’ll become our coffee place” Vinnie thought as he sipped from his dark black coffee. No sugar, no milk, just bitter goodness. He was careful not to spill the drink on his scarf.
Three weeks wasn’t really that much time to be talking with someone online. Well, it would be if it was about anything else then his, ‘unique preferences’. Three weeks was years if measured out by Tindr or some other dating website. But the random person doesn’t learn enough about you to ruin your life and career just by looking at your profile and learning your name.
So Vinnie thought of this as a calculated risk. He had been very, very careful after one mistake made a dozen years ago. One mistake too many. It wouldn’t happen again. Ever.
Lost in these thoughts Vinnie, was startled when she walked in. “Fuck,” he thought, “Fuckity, Fuckity, Fuckity Fuck. I knew I should have lost that last ten pounds.”
She wasn’t beautiful, she was gorgeous.
“You’ll know me by the rose,” she had texted, and there it was, tattooed on her upper arm, one tattoo among many. She was short, "Well everyone is short compared to me,"Vinnie thought. She had sharp features, almost mannish, and dark green eyes. The small nub of a piercing on the side of her nose only made her look fiercer and Vinnie saw, because he knew what to look for, the small scars on her eyebrows where old piercings had been.
She wore a dark denim jacket with a black shirt and tight blue jeans that just seems to fit so well with her tight pixie haircut of blond dyed hair.
“I should have dropped that last ten pounds,” Vinnie thought again before he stood up and called “Julie?”
Julie looked over and saw the man who must be her date. “Christ he is tall,” she thought as she waves and walks over, “Not half-bad looking either.”
He was very tall, easily six and half feet. As Julie sat down across from him she saw that he has a strong jaw and a finely groomed beard. “But something is a little odd about his face,” she thought, before she realized that his nose skews ever so slightly to the left. “Crooked from earlier break no doubt” Julie thought. That and a slightly lopsided smile made him look a little punch drunk, a little beaten down, but in a surprisingly pleasant way. Kind of like he had been knocked around the block a few times but was still smiling.
His face clashed with his clothing, which was a little too fashionable for her taste. A long black coat and a grey dress shirt and some half dress pants half blue jeans. His hair was nice though, light brown and thick with a slight swoop to left. “Right on that line between vain and stylish” Julie thought.
“We’ve never been properly introduced, I’m Vinnie” he half said and half rumbled as he flashed that lopsided grin.
“Wow his voice is deep,” Julie thought before she replied, “I’m Julie,” making a vague wave with her hand.
As she finished speaking Vinnie pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. His hand shook slightly as he brought a cigarette up to his mouth. “To much caffeine,” Julie thought, “He must have had a little too much because he was nervous.”
“Don’t mind if I smoke do you?” Vinnie asked, right before he lit up.
“No,” Julie replied quickly, although in the back of her head she thought, “Of course I mind if you give yourself cancer in front of me.” But she wanted this to go well, wanted her first meeting with the man she has messaged for nearly a month to succeed. This is first time she had met, actually physically met anyone who knew that she, on occasion, likes wear diapers, and even more occasionally, piss in them.
A slight blush rose in Julie’s face at the thought, but Vinnie spoke, and drew her focus back to reality.
“So when did you have a eyebrow piercing and why did you take it out?”
“You noticed?” Julie asked as she reached up to scratch at the old scar.
“You didn’t?” He replied, pointing at an even older and more faded scar on his own eyebrow.
“Oh, one of those takes one to know one situations I guess. I don’t know, it’d have to be somewhere around four years now maybe. I didn’t hate it or anything like that, just one morning I took it out to clean the stud, you know, the jewelry.”
“Yeah, I follow.”
“Well I looked back in the mirror and I just kinda though it was a “less is more” situation. You know with the just the nose piercing. It just looked more focused I guess. I don’t regret it if that’s what your asking.”
“Well I kinda was, in a way. You look a little like a punk in recovery.”
“Well you look like something that got shaken out of a J-Crew catalogue.”
“Wow, I guess that’s fair. You obviously mean that in a good way right?”
“Sure. Why not.”
“You tease hard don’t you?”
“I don’t remember saying I was teasing.”
“Oh you don’t have to. I can see it in your eyes. They laugh when your teasing but you don’t smile.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just a phrase I read once, ‘laughing eyes’. I didn’t know what it meant till just right now. Maybe you didn’t mean to but you did do me a kindness by showing me that. Now I don’t have spend my nights wondering what that looks like.”
“So do I have to ask how you got your eyebrow piercing?”
“No.”
There was a silence after that, a brief one but Vinnie didn’t say anything, he just smiled at her, looking a little like that cat who caught the canary.
“It seems like you want me to ask,” Julie said.
“Of course I do! But you don’t ‘have to’,” he replied, still with that lopsided smile on his face.
Julie crossed her arms and waited, smiling right back.
After another moment, even longer than the last, he burst out, “Well if you are going to force me I’ll tell you. Just calm down, people might think you like me.”
“I wouldn’t want to give them the wrong impression” Julie said.
“Do you want the long version or the short version?”
“Obviously the long version. This hasn’t taken up nearly enough of my life already.”
“Well I should probably get you a coffee or something because we will be here for awhile.”
He stood up to get the drink from inside coffee shop, but Julie suddenly had a moment of clarity. One of those “oh fuck what exactly have been coming out of my mouth for the last five minutes” moments. “If he goes, he’s definitely not coming back,” she thought with alarm. “This is supposed to go well, you aren’t supposed to fuck it up till later idiot,” she mentally scolded herself.
So she reached out and grabbed Vinnie’s arm. “You know I was joking right? I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just playing. I just got a little carried away. Right?” That last ‘Right’ sounded desperate, even to her.
Vinnie leaned over Julie from his half standing position, still towering above her. “I knew you were joking little one. Like daddy said your eyes were smiling,” Vinnie whispered into her ear. This felt right, and at that moment any regrets Julie had had about coming here were gone. She felt lightheaded and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she was blushing. As he sat back down she cleared her throat and tried to focus but she found that her mouth had dried up.
“Thank you. That’s ummmm….very sweet. But I don’t feel comfortable doing that right here or right now.”
“I’m patient” Vinnie said, but it was only at that moment that Julie could see that he was blushing too. “The moment just kinda carried me away,” He added, “I hear that happens.”
“Yes!,” Vinnie thought, “Gooooooooooooooaaaaaalllllllllll!!! Wow that was a rush. And her face, holy shit she was cute. I’ve never seen a punk blush at all before and I even got her ears to blush!”
Then she was talking again and Vinnie had to end his mental victory celebration early. “She’s not a baby or a child,” he mentally reminded himself, “even though the idea of her asking for a diaper change is the best thing ever. Okay focus, you are talking to an adult.”
Vinnie had entirely missed what she had said and apologized, “I’m sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts for a second there. Could you repeat that?”
“I said, you are pretty funny for a big guy.”
“Oooo…. I got some bad news for you then.”
“What?”
“I’ve used up all my good conversation already. Twenty six years and that’s all I could come up with. So from now on I’m going to be incredibly boring. Now you have to take the lead and be as interesting, funny and good looking as I have been.”
“Shouldn’t I set the bar higher though? I want to shoot for more than ‘mildly interesting’, ‘barely funny’ and-,” she was interrupted from her train of thought by Vinnie flexing one arm and raising one eyebrow. “Okay being fairly good looking.”
They both laughed and the conversation started to wander, sorts of things that you alway talk about when first meeting, family, friends, music, work. Run of the mill stuff. They had messaged about it earlier, but they both discovered that they simply enjoyed listening to the others voice, and watching the each other’s small gestures. The small hand movements, the tilt of the head, the things everyone does while they talk, but is still as personal and specific as a fingerprint.
“So,” he said, “it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these things.”
"What things?
“Well… I don’t know the right word anymore.”
“You mean a date?” She asked.
He sighed and Julie saw some tension that she wasn’t even aware of leave his shoulders.
“Thank you for saying out loud,” Vinnie said, “I’m not really good with the right language.”
“What do you mean?”
He leaned in, smiling, and asked, “Aren’t we not supposed to call dates ‘dates’ anymore? Isn’t it ‘hanging out’?”
“No I’ve done that before and it’s exhausting. I know people aren’t into labels anymore but I don’t really want to be ‘monogamous fuck buddies’ with anyone.”
“And it’s a mouthful,” he added helpfully, with his lopsided smile.
Then he smiled even wider and gets a devious look in his eye before he reached over and gently grasped her hand. “Julie,” he asked in a mock serious tone, “will you go in this date with me?”
“He is pretty cute for a big guy,” she thought. Then she joked back, “Aren’t you supposed to be on one knee? Don’t let the tattoos fool you, I’m a classy bitch.”
“Will you say yes if I do?” He asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
“Then you leave me no choice” he said as he put out his cigarette. Then Vinnie stood up only to get down on one knee, so tall he still is eye level with Julie, who is still sitting down. “What beautiful green eyes they are,” Vincent realized, noticing how well they go with the the blush rising in her cheeks.
Then he shouted,“Julie, will you make the happiest man in the world?”
Suddenly everyone in the coffee shop is looking at her expectantly.
You could hear a pin drop.
Her blush only deepens and he decides to throw her a break and wink. She takes the cue and then replies in a loud voice “Of course!”
Going with the moment Vinnie swept her up into his arms and out on the street followed only by the wild clapping of the coffee house crowd.
“I’m trying really hard to be charming, and you know, sort of sweep you off your feet.” Vinnie said, bouncing her in his arms for emphasis. “Is it working?”
Instead of answering, she hugged him and buried her head in his shoulder. That was all the answer that Vinnie needed. Then she looked back up in his eyes with a serious expression. “I’m not sure yet if you have to put me down or carry me the four blocks to the restaurant we are eating at.”
“You already picked for us?”
“Of course I did.”
You know what I have to apologize. I got ahead of myself. I’m sorry. I promised to begin and the beginning and I did begin at a beginning. But not the right beginning. I’ll pick the right moment this time, you’ll see.
