Waffle Love

I woke up this morning with a huge smile on my face, thinking about one of the best Friday nights of my life. Darius and I have been going out on what we call "informal dates" for a whole year now. Last night, he invited me out to have dinner with him at an Italian restaurant to start off his birthday weekend. He revealed to me that his mother planned a small birthday party for him at his house Saturday night, since he did not make any plans due to our city expecting a blizzard Saturday evening into Sunday (Sunday is his birthday). He told me that he wanted me to come celebrate his birthday with him and meet his family officially as his girlfriend. "Wait! What? So, you are asking me to officially be your girlfriend, meet your family, and attend your birthday party all at the same time? You really know how to lay it on thick!" I exclaimed and giggled in excitement. "I would love to" I told him while looking into his pretty brown eyes and watching his sexy lips curl into the most sexy smile I have ever seen. As we enjoyed our dinner, we continued to discuss the details of his birthday weekend. Since the blizzard was coming, I would have to pack and plan to be snowed in with him at his house with his family. He assured me that there would be plenty of space. After dinner, we shared an uber and made out the entire ride to my house, where we said goodnight and confirmed our plans to meet up at the marketplace early in the morning. I stayed up half of the night, deciding what to pack, packing, and getting ready. I finally calmed my nerves and went to sleep for a few hours until it was time to get ready to leave out to meet Darius. I hopped out of bed, showered, dressed, grabbed my luggage, and made sure that my condo was shut down and locked up. I left my building and started my four block walk to the marketplace to meet Darius. As soon as I stepped outside, the cold brisk air hits my face and the wind tried to take my breath away. I pull my luggage along, and reminice on the day we met at Waffle Love with hopes that my warm memories keep my mind off of how cold it is. We originally planned to meet up at the marketplace this morning even before we knew about his birthday party because we usually come to the maketplace on Sunday's, but since the blizzard was coming, we knew that we had to switch to Saturday morning this week. I started the ritual of coming to the marketplace every Sunday for breakfast about 6 years ago, during my first year of college. This is where I met Darius. The marketplace is a large warehouse style building that houses numerous counters of vendors that sell an assortment of things, for example, produce, cooked food, fresh meat, poultry, seafood, clothing, shoes, accessories, crafts, baked goods, household items, etc. It also has a few areas set up like a cafeteria with tables and chairs to eat at. My routine practically every Sunday morning when I arrive to the marketplace is to go to Waffle Love to have breakfast first, then stop by the other vendors to complete my weekly grocery and household shopping. Then, I deliver my purchases to my condo and go to my parents house for dinner. Waffle Love is a breakfast/brunch counter that serves the best waffles and breakfast food in the world. They offer many different waffle flavors and toppings and the waffles are always perfect and cooked custom to your preference. The first time I saw Darius here, I experienced something that I never experienced before. When my eyes landed on him for the first time, the whole world around me stopped, he is sooo FINE! He has a medium brown carmel complexion, just like me. He is about 5'8, average weight, slightly muscular, close hair cut with low fade, and full beard. I was sitting at one of the tables and noticed him standing at the counter, with another female, waiting for his order. Months went by and I secretly admired him every week as I enjoyed my waffle meal. Every so often, I caught him taking glimpses in my direction, but most of the time he would be in the company of another female. I have noticed two different females over the years that he has been in relationships with. Finally, on one of his rare visits alone, he broke the ice. He walked over to the table where I was sitting, intoduced himself, and asked if he could join me. We sat and talked for hours and I could tell he enjoyed conversing with me just as much as I did. We exhanged numbers, but remained strictly friends over the years, a mutual decision between us, for two main reasons. The first reason was that our friendship became so valuable that we did not want to compromise it. The second reason was that we seemed to always miss the opportunity, when one of us would be dating someone the other would be single, mainly Darius would usually be unavailable. To be honest, I do not date much and I have only been in one serious relationship so far, this is by choice. Even though I often got approached by guys expressing interest in me, I chose to focus on school and get my career started before dedicating my time and energy into dating and relationships. During our friendship years, we only physically saw each other on Sundays at the marketplace and sometimes when we facetimed during the week. Finally, everything changed about a year ago. It was a Saturday evening and I was home at my condo typing up some lesson plan ideas in my guestroom/office when Darius video called me. "Are you busy?" he asked me. "Not really, why? What's up?" I asked. "Can we meet up?" he asked. "I am not in the mood to come outside, it's raining and cold. Plus, I am not dressed. Can we plan for another time?" I asked. "Can I come over? I really want to see you and talk to you." he asked. I agreed and sent him my address. When he arrived, he told me that he just broke up with his fiance, Ashley, because he overheard her phone conversation with her best friend revealing that she was with him mainly to use him for his money. He told her to move out of his house that night and wanted her and all of her stuff to be gone before he came back. He told her that he never wanted to see or hear from her again. His heart was broken and we talked and drank for half of the night until he passed out on the sofa bed in my guest room. He started coming over regularly for my company, sometimes staying over and sleeping in my guest room when he couldn't sleep or just did not want to be alone at his house. We would eat dinner together, watch movies and shows, and play games. After a while, we decided to start what we called, "informal dating." We created this to have a safe way to go out on dates with no realtionship title, no s*x, and protect our friendship in case it didn't work out. Plus, I told him that I did not feel comfortable getting into a relationship with him for at least a year after his break up, which he understood. Reflecting back on all of the decisions, rules, and terms that Darius and I made over the years, I really appreciate them because they landed us where we are now. In addition to forming a strong foundation to build our relationship on and really getting to know each other throughly. I am extremely excited to see what our bright future holds. As I approach the doors to enter the marketplace, the emotions of excitement and nervousness overwhelm me and cause my heart to race. I reach for the door handle and step inside.