Housewarming BBQ

  The following Saturday, a few days after the Rockies game, was the date of Chris and Lori’s Housewarming BBQ. I brought my Bocce Ball set that I had recently acquired on my recent trip to Vermont. I forget why I showed up late, but when I arrived there were a lot of people already in attendance. Enough so that my attention was being diverted several times before I was able to get into the backyard to “check in” with Lori and let her know I was there.

  No sooner than I see Lori then she turns and says “Kerry, this is Christine. She’s never been to a Rockies game.” An attractive red-headed girl with a big smile looked at me and said “Hi! I’m Christine!” I said hello and responded with a polite “You’ve never been to a Rockies game?” Lori then added “you should take her sometime.” We both replied with polite responses like “If she wants to…” and “Sure.” You know, one of those things you never intend to follow through with, because they are a total stranger and you were just thrust into an awkward situation that will come off as rude if you answer honestly. After a brief polite conversation, I moved on to say hi to my roommate Melissa whom had arrived with some guy.

  Eric and Lucinda were also in attendance. It was the first time I had seen her since our Vermont trip. We reminisced over a game of Bocce in which I chose Julie as my partner. Afterwards I went about my duty that I was given which was “to mingle with the guests,” thus preventing everybody from staying in their own little cliques amongst their circle of friends.  

  The first group I came across was a circle of people who worked with Chris. With this group, I had an “in”. Christine, the red head that hadn’t been to a Rockies game was sitting with this group.  I sat next to her and started to strike up a conversation. In the midst of small talk, someone came over and brought up “The Gold Story.” This caused Christine to inquire about it leading me to relay the 40 minute story in all its grandeur. She was captivated by the whole thing. Afterwards, while talking to others, Christine excused herself to use the rest room. Unbeknownst, to me, I had done something that impressed her and enthused  ” interest” in me. She excused herself, almost under her breath while I was in mid conversation, but I took a moment to acknowledge she was leaving and show I was still paying high attention to her despite my focus being shifted elsewhere. For girls, it seams, it is the little things that count.

   After she left, I had moved on to another conversation elsewhere in the yard to at least make a feeble attempt to “mingle’ as per my responsibility. A girl that had been watching the show “Lost” had missed the final episode of the first season and with the season premier of Season 2 on the horizon she wanted to be caught up. I pulled her aside and gave her a play by play of the two part season finale to catch her up, which was fairly easy for me because I had become obsessed with that show since the first episode.

  Afterwards, I went and searched for Christine. I found her easy enough. As soon as I entered the house, she was there right by the door. What I thought of as convenient, I found out later on, had actually been strategically planned by her. We talked a bit and finally, after repeated attempts from others on both sides to ‘save us’ in case we needed saving, Christine asked if I wanted to go get some coffee somewhere.   It was then that I finally realized that she might actually be interested in me.

  We drove around in search of a Starbucks but it turned out that all of them close by 7:00 PM in this area on a Saturday. Who knew? We found a Jamba Juice. She ordered a drink. I refrained, it turned out I didn’t have any cash on me and instead of admitting that, just said the wheat grass they sold scared me because that would be something I gave my guinea pigs… It was stupid, I know, but I just met her and didn’t want to come off as ‘that guy’.

  After she got her drink, we went back to Lori’s house and talked in the car for hours interrupted only once when Chris came and told me that the small ball from my Bocce set was missing, most likely from the kids playing with them in the spare bedroom. I told him I didn’t care, but he made me look for it. I think the concern was that they had a Boston Terrier that may find it, chew it up and or choke on it.

  Just before midnight, I asked Christine if she wanted to go to a movie the following weekend. We had been talking about Tim Burton films and The Corpse Bride was currently in theaters, so it made for a convenient excuse. She agreed.

  It turned out that even though we both drove about 40 minutes north to go to this party, we lived less than 5 minutes away from each other on the southern part of the city. We bid each other goodbye and exchanged phone numbers and E-mail addresses… Little did I know at the time that my life would change forever after that night.