Monday, October 15, 2012

Surprise!

There is one totally awesome part about being in an EXTREME LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP. I mean, aside from all the traveling and adventures to be had.

The surprise visit.

The Gentleman arrived yesterday morning, just as I was attempting to stretch 13.1 miles of hills out of my legs from Saturday's victory run (no PR on my half-marathon time, but I didn't puke this time which is what my friend Stupid refers to as a "net positive"). It wasn't technically a total surprise - I'd known about it for about 48 hours - but it was definitely last-minute, and definitely lovely.

The Gentleman had to fly home, last-minute, for business reasons but it means that we have a delightful little week-long interlude before my vacation out to Abu Dhabi at the end of the month. We celebrated his homecoming by doing two things he can't do in the Middle East - going to brunch and watching football all afternoon.

Lee had warned me that in a long-distance relationship, the first thirty minutes of seeing one another after a long period of time are weird. He was right - except not in the way that I thought. Our first thirty minutes together were weird only because it was as though he had never been gone. We met on a street corner outside of his hotel after his car service dropped him off, had an epic hug, and then headed off to brunch like we would on any other Sunday. Everything about The Gentleman being right next to me, here in Baltimore, felt normal. There was a brief moment of "why is this stranger is holding my hand" but it wasn't a stranger, it was my boyfriend and we were walking in step with one another as though we had been parted for five minutes and not three months.

"Is that weird?" I asked The Gentleman. 

"No, I think that's how it's supposed to be, right?" he said.

"I guess so? I don't know, I've never done this before. Oh well, let's get more beers."

We have excellent communication skills.

And so, very randomly, I found myself lying on the couch with my feet in The Gentleman's lap, as we drank pumpkin beer and watched Family Guy on a Sunday night. You know, as though he hadn't moved 7,000 miles away. He's just back for a visit, and I am just happy, and that's how it's supposed to be.

Oh, and he brought me a delightful bottle of Dom Perignon and a box of dates, which are my favorite Middle Eastern treat. He knows the way to my heart is via duty-free liquor.

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