Best Friends to Boyfriends

The 1st photo is of this last Thanksgiving (Andrew is the one in my favorite blue shirt on the left.) The Second shot is us in our formal attire at a charity ball.

Andrew do you feel your ears burning???? That would because I have been singing around the house "wake up wake up my dear, its well past noon, the 1 O'Clock gun has gone off, breakfast long gone, and lunch will be soon, wake up wake up my dear, if you were here I would throw something at you, in the most caring and loving way. Tra La Tra LA" Or perhaps because I am typing a blog entry about you and now the whole Internet will know your still sleeping.

Hmmmm. Bless! What to do with a Boyfriend who is a night owl and really cant bring himself to see the light of dawn? Mostly we go on evening dates, mostly to the cinema with our fancy unlimited movie cards, so our dates are mostly free. Our relationship is definitely a jeans and t-shirt, casual, free, relaxed kind of environment. Id say its a "No Stress" arrangement, but I'm far to dramatic for that. He knows and accepts my high maintenance and maybe I can even venture to say he loves me for it, although its generally preferred after mid day.

So I know that many of you will be wondering who is this man that I am calling boyfriend? Andrew James Fleming, the full title I only use when he is in trouble although occasionally that can be substituted for Arse Monkey if the situation applies.

I met him working the summer before last on the tour buses. He was working on a management internship and was meant to be my boss for 6 weeks, although none of us listened to him, (come to think of it we don't listen to our regular boss either, hmmmm) I'm not really sure what possessed me to be so bold, as I'm normally very shy but I walked right up to him and said "I don't know you. Who are you, and what are you doing working on the Tours? Oh I'm sorry I'm Clarice by the way." I think I surprised him a little but what ever, it worked. We started talking, flirting and generally hit it off. I tried to give him my number and he refused, primarily because he was clueless to my flirtations, but I was again unusually persistent.

He liked musicals so I asked him to come see something with me at the Fringe Performance festival. Awwwww and that's how the 1st date was born, awkward and all. It was a terrible performance, I chatted incessantly about all the wrong things over dinner, and generally we were nervous. However we were nervous together and that's what counts.

Well things went on this way for 2 or 3 more dates, but it wasn't moving smoothly. I'm sure my enthusiastic, energetic, demanding, high maintenance self was overwhelming for the poor guy. However his laid back, non-responsive, casual, relaxed, if not slightly lazy attitude towards every thing was driving my anal-retentive side insane. So we agreed to be friends. Well that was an interesting learning experience. Despite efforts on both parts, we kept flirting, and finding ourselves in date like situations.

I have memories of road trips, camping weekends, Boxing day with his family, late night movies, and fudge Sundays at my place, many dinners for two, or movie dates. We have done interesting activities such as midnight walks through creepy graveyard's, and slightly inebriated swimming excursions in the large gold fountain in the Princess Street Gardens around 2 am in November. He tried to teach me to ski, and I nag him constantly about the little details he usually forgets. So although Andrew quickly became one of my closest friends we often had to explain ourselves to others, re-iterating constantly that "There was nothing GOING ON between us!!!!" Honestly and genuinely there wasn't. I dated a few other guys, Andrew flirted with many other women (flirting is one of his subconscious talents, that I'm working on helping him to make it a more conscious thought) We were very close, and loved to hang out, but tried very hard to keep the intimacy at bay so our friendship could survive.

It didn't work. One random night I had a cold, just finished putting Menthol vapor rub on my chest, a stuffy nose, and probably looked like death warmed over, and Andrew starts flirting with me again. Don't know if it was my weakened state, or his irresistible smile but I caved in big time. We both kind of ignored that night and let our friendship balance dangerously on the edge of romantic and platonic mutual affection.

This lasted about 3 weeks before I called him and demanded to talk, then confessed to having feelings for him. Dunnn Dunnn Dunnn! Oh dear, my best friend, what a scandal!!!!! Then despite the tiny sparkle of a smile appearing in his eyes, the annoying man asked me to take a weekend to sleep on it. "Just to be sure, we were risking a lot after all. " Well Andrew is the only person I know who could actually sleep for an entire weekend. I felt like it was 3 days of absolute hell, but I did as I was told and I thought long and hard.

I thought about how he makes me laugh, the way his smile melts me from inside, how we know each other so completely, the adventures we have had, the ones I still dream of exploring, and the arguments we have survived. Technically we only had 1 argument as a couple but countless screaming matches as friends. So it couldn't get any worse really. I guess in the end I felt that one should always give love a chance. (or as to not make any thing seem that serious or permanent "Strong liking" I believe that's the stupid contemporary term for a long term relationship that isn't serious. Although personally I think that's a ridiculous concept all together. How can any one not be serious about any thing long term? Perhaps its the drama queen in me but every thing I do is a serious pressing matter!!!)

So we have officially been an item for 2 months and 5 days now, (but who's counting).