Slow as a Cheetah

Work has been pretty crazy for me lately and I’ve been running all over town to go to meetings and rehearsals and walkthroughs of our theatre (the renovation is almost done!). I’ve basically been working, coming home to sleep, and then going back to work.

“Hey, stranger,” Adam said when I answered my phone, “Do you have time to come over?”

“Um. I have, like, an hour but I haven’t eaten all day so I was going to use it to get food.” I said tiredly.

“Come over and I’ll have something waiting for you. I have some good news that I want to tell you about.” Adam said.

I agreed and headed over. Adam greeted me at the door with a roast beef and cheddar sandwich, chips, and a soda. I reached for it but he held it out of my reach.

“I’m having my reversal done in a week.” Adam said smiling and giving me a kiss.

“What!? That’s so great!” I said giving him a hug.

He handed me the plate of food and kissed my cheek.

“I have to go finish up an article really fast, I’ll be back in a sec.” He said as I sat down and dug in.

I snarfed my sandwich down with lightning speed because I was so hungry and waited for a bit before I decided to go bother him while he worked because I’m the best girlfriend ever.

I walked into Adam’s study and he was slumped over his laptop.

“You’re not being a very good host.” I said hugging him from behind and kissing his cheek.

He spun his chair around and pulled me down on his lap.

“I’m sorry. How’s work today?” He asked.

“I feel like I haven’t even had time to breathe until now. Thank you for the food. You have no idea how badly I needed it.”

Adam let me vent about my day and turned me so he could rub my back.

“And then we ran through the matchmaker song and I thought Eric, the musical director, was going to LOSE it. He looked pissed.”

“What did you do?”

“I gave him a lollipop.” I said.

Adam laughed really hard.

“That’s so funny! Did it work?”

“Yeah.” I giggled.

“Oh my God, I love you.”

Adam and I both froze and I turned to look at him.

“What did you just say?” I asked with horror.

“Nothing. I said it was funny.” He said trying to cover.

“No you didn’t,” I stood up off of his lap and turned to face him, “You just said… OH MY GOD. YOU JUST SAID THAT!”

“Okay, calm down…” Adam said standing and trying to ward off the panic he saw painted all over my face.

“OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD!” I walked into his living room and started pacing.

“Faith, just take a deep breath, it was just a slip.”

I looked at him with wild eyes.

“But you meant it, right!?”

“Well…” Adam’s eyes shifted as if he was looking for any other way to answer, “Yeah.”

“Adam, we’re supposed to be taking things slow! We’ve only been dating for a few weeks! THIS IS NOT TAKING IT SLOW!!!”

“I know, okay, but just sit down. You look like you’re a deer about to run out into the middle of a meadow during hunting season.” Adam had me sit on his coffee table and he squatted in front of me, “Listen to me for a second, okay? It’s going to scare you but just promise me that you will listen to me for a second.”

I felt like I wanted to sprint down the street screaming but nodded at him instead.

“Okay, Faith. I love you. I think about our future together and marrying you and having kids with you. That doesn’t mean I’m proposing anything,” Adam said very quickly when he saw my eyes get even wider, “And that’s it. All the scary parts are over. I love you and that’s all. You don’t need to say anything back or do anything, it changes nothing in how you exist in this relationship. Please stop looking like a deer in headlights.”

I gave him a judgmental look.

“I’m sorry about the deer metaphors, I’ve been writing a lot of articles for hunting magazines lately.” Adam explained.

I sat there and stared at him in abject horror with absolutely nothing to say. Suddenly I stood up.

“I have to get back to work.” I said with a tinge of panic, “I….I have to leave.”

I started looking around for my bag while Adam watched me stumble about his apartment. When I found it I headed to the front door and Adam was standing there with his hand on the doorknob.

“I need to go to work.” I said hurriedly.

“Take a deep breath.”

I did.

“We both know why you’re in such a hurry to leave and we are going to have to talk about this at some point, okay?”

I nodded and he opened the door and put one arm against it as he watched me leave.