On this date nine years ago, Elise and I had our first date. Elise and I had flirted in the gang dark room in the St. Ed’s photo lab during the ’98 term. It wasn’t until I realized that she lived in the apartment below me that I started thinking things were falling into place. I used the student directory to find her email address and at 3 a.m. one morning, I wrote my first letter to Elise. She can fill you in with the details, but the gist of it was, “Hey, I think you live in the apartment below me… let’s hang out some time.”
She confirmed via an email response that she lived in the same building the next afternoon.
I remember the day like yesterday. My buddy and neighbor, James and I were leaving together to go get my cell phone fixed when Elise was pulling into the parking lot. I remember giving an enthusiastic “Hi!” and introducing Elise to James. James and I were in a hurry and with quick thought, I asked Elise if she would want to hang out with my friends from work later that evening.
I went to work at the Austin Country Club that afternoon and told Doug that I was inviting ‘someone’ to our regular late night outing at The Tavern. The regular ACC crüe and I were there. Elise called me on my cell to tell me she was heading out to meet me.
Once she showed up, I immediately retired from playing pool and spend the next three hours sitting on a bar stool, talking to Elise.
As usual, we closed the bar. Everyone left together. Since Elise lived in the unit just below me, I joked and said, “See ya at home.”
We both got “home” at the same time. I followed Elise upstairs and asked if I could see her apartment. Her room was a wreck.
We spent the rest of the evening at my place. We hung out on my 3rd floor balcony until the wee hours of the morning, just talking. It started to gently rain. It was the perfect opportunity for the first kiss. I was a wimp in the ways of instigating back in those times. To this day, Elise asks me, “Why didn’t you just kiss me?” I was nervous! I knew, that night, that this girl was going to be with me forever. I didn’t want to screw things up. Maybe I should have kissed her on the balcony. I finally did kiss her before she left my place to go downstairs to her place for the night.
We’ve been together every day since. And we have a water color painting of The Tavern hanging in the hallway before Maly’s bedroom.
I love you, El.