The first time ...

The lyrics say 'The first time ever I saw your face ...'.  I remember the first I saw him ... it was 1988, we were on our way back to Petersburg after hanging out at  friend's house in Hopewell.  One of my cohorts had to use the bathroom and we flat-out refused to let him pee on the side of the road as he suggested, so we pulled into the McDonald's on Oaklawn Blvd.  While we waited patiently in the car we could see the folks eating inside.  That's when this gorgeous dark-skinned man got up from his table.  We could see he was built and I wanted a closer look.  He returned to the table and a few minutes after ... our friend returned to the car.  By this time we had worked ourselves into a frenzy over this guy and my cousin agreed to go in the McDonald's with me, so I could say something to him.

As we head inside, my inner-shy decided it was time to come out ... I couldn't open my mouth!  He and the guy he was sitting with glanced in my direction, smiling.  I smiled and quickly turned my head, my cousin punched me in the shoulder.  I walked up to the counter, ordered an apple pie, got my order, turned toward them, smiled again and took my happy butt out the door.  Of course my cousin was on my heels ... cursing.  As we get in the car she's verbally beating me up and calling me scared.  I sit there, hands on the wheel but I don't start the car.  Now it becomes a decision of do I go back in and try again or do I wait for him to come out?  So ... we sit ... for THIRTY LONG MINUTES!!! 

We begin to wonder just how much they could eat and why were they taking so long.  My cousin and our friend become irritable and are ready to leave.  Me being me, I continue to sit there, I wait.  After what seemed like another eternity, they finally start preparing to leave their seat.  As they approach the exit I roll my window down and motion for him to come to my car.  They look at each other and the other guy points to himself (???).  I quickly shake my head no and point again.  The gorgeous guy realizes I'm talking about him, he smiles and heads toward the car.  This also allows me the opportunity to 'take it all in'.  He is A-MAY-ZING!!  Tall, slender but muscular, bowed-legs and extremely dark.  His smile flashed and once he got close enough I could see why ... GOLD TEETH (smh).  One strike but not enough to put him out.

He kneels beside my door and leans partially in ... no bad breath thank goodness.  My first question: What's your name?  He responds and asks my name, I respond.  My next question: Are you married?  To this one he holds up his left hand, twirls it around in the air and then rests it on my door.  I respond by saying 'that doesn't mean a thing'.  He smiles and then says he's married but separated (insert my 'sure ya are' face here) and asks is that a problem for me.  Now let me say this was at a time in that I did some things I'm not so proud of ... that being said, my response was 'doesn't bother me if it doesn't bother you'.  From that point we exchanged contact information and both said we'd be in touch.  I started the engine, pulled out the parking lot and pointed my car toward Petersburg, so my exhausted but excited partners could finally lay heads on a pillow.

It was later that night as I sat in my living room that a knock came at my door.  I approached the peephole wondering who in the world would be coming by (this time of night) without calling and has I adjusted my eyes I found myself blinking, trying to make sure of what I saw.  I slowly opened the door and there he was ...