The Beginning: First Sight

I'd like to start to jot down some notes on how B.J. and I met and became 'us.' Here goes nothing:

I'd love to be able to tell you it was ever so sweet, full of roses and hand-holding and 'sweet nothings' but it isn't. It's much more raw and gritty.

But, such is my life.

The first time I saw B.J. was at a party. I had been feeling lousy and just wanted to stay home and be a blob on the couch and suffer with my 'cold'. But, as luck and posession of a car and driver's license would have it, I was not to be a party pooper that night. My friends H. and J. wanted badly to go to a party across town. I tried to wheedle and whine my way out of driving 'us' to the party, but 'no' was not an answer they'd take. So, off the couch, into a pair of Doc Marten's and away we went.

The party was in a semi-sleazy part of town (the wrong side of the tracks, if you will) and it was full of people I didn't know, didn't care to know, and was generally content to ignore. I was not in a particularly chipper mood. I can remember being introduced to a score of people as I lit my cigarette and glanced around the room. That was when I saw B.J.

I wasn't terribly impressed, to be truthful. B.J. is a nice looking man, but I wasn't exactly 'looking' for anyone at the time. I do remember two things about B.J. from that night: 1) he was considerably 'older' than the rest of the 18-21 year-old crowd (he was 23), and 2) he was very tall and dark.

Beyond that initial meeting, if you could call it that, I didn't take notice of B.J. the rest of the evening. In fact, I wound up with another guy that night, again, not in my initial intentions.