The Story of Us

by Fat Daddy, Esq. on July 14, 2013

Yesterday I went to the car wash to make my vehicle more presentable for the evening. Hot Mama and I were going out with friends to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. As I was spraying down the car with the power washer it made me think of the first summer she and I were together.

I worked at our ranch and she was a lifeguard at the local pool. I would get up before dawn to go work in the heat all day and my vehicle always got dirty from driving down dirt (or muddy) roads, across shallow creeks and through cow shit covered pastures. By the time that I got back to town in the evenings, my Jeep was a mess. So before I would drive to the public pool, I would stop at the car wash. I went through a lot of quarters that summer in an effort to have a clean ride for my lady friend. I would pick her up and we would spend time together late into the night before we would have to return home and prepare to do it all over again the next day.

We’ve known each other since kindergarten but our relationship didn’t really get serious until the end of our senior year of high school. She was always a very pretty girl and from an early age she caught my eye. I remember sitting behind her in fifth grade. I remember talking to her on my Swatch phone as she listened to the New Kids on the Block. I remember one baseball season that our brothers were on the same team that I made sure to not miss a game in hopes she would be there. When I went to Japan in junior high, I brought her back a hand fan. She was friends with my friends and even when she had other romantic interest, we kept in contact.

She had a boyfriend from another town so things didn’t look too promising for me. Then towards the end of our senior year, a glorious day occurred. It was “Senior Skip Day” and a large group of the seniors blew off school and went to the lake. I was there. She was there. By the end of the night we ended up alone in my Jeep. We talked about a lot of different things, including reminiscing over the short period of time a few summers before when we dated. She rode home in another friend’s car but I followed to make sure that she got home safely.

Graduation soon followed and after the ceremony we ended up at my car where I gave her a graduation gift. I went home to see my family. She came too. She said she wanted to come over to thank my parents for the graduation gift that they had given her. I later learned that her boyfriend and family were sitting at her house waiting on her to appear while she was with me. We had a graduation party that night and despite the events of the past week she was with her boyfriend and I passed the time with my friends.

A few days later she had a small graduation party at her house. I was going to be out of town and didn’t know I if I would be able to make it. I went to a college baseball regional tournament a few hours away. After the first game of the doubleheader I decided to drive back home for the party. I was the last person to leave that party. She didn’t seem to mind. But I did have to go home to do some chores and invited her to join me. She said yes. I took her home around 4:oo in the morning after hours of playing pool, watching movies, making out, and most importantly, talking.

Soon thereafter she broke up with her boyfriend and we saw each other a few more times. She went to Cancun with her friends and sent me a postcard. I picked her up from the airport. We have been together ever since.

That summer soon ended and we moved to college, separated by 65 miles of asphalt. We spent four wonderful years seeing each other on weekends and breaks and using every minute our cell phones plans would allow. One night I couldn’t wait any longer to give her the diamond ring I bought for her and without any of the grandiose storybook gestures of modern proposals I asked her to marry me. She said yes.

Twelve years ago we said “I do” and it has been a wild ride ever since. We have shared many moments together, mostly happy but some sad. We now have three wonderful kids who we would not trade for the world, despite their impressively shitty behavior from time to time. We have three dogs and a cat. We have lived in our home town and traveled the world. We have a mortgage and credit card payments. We have jobs and responsibilities. We have old aches and new wrinkles. And most importantly we have each other.

We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders and toughest critics. We are each other’s best friends and lovers. She has played a large role in where I am today and I look forward to the years to come to see where this adventure takes us next.

Image: Travis Nep Smith

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