Untrue Love (Part Three: A)

I left off where Damion came into the picture and Blake faded out. Now, remember, Damion didn't ask me out on a date; he asked me to help him find pants for work. Let me start with our first date.

As you may recall, he asked me to accompany him in purchasing new dress pants for work. Odd, but friendly and less intimidating than asking someone on a romantic date. Since it was not a date, I did not dress for the occasion. I wore a long-sleeve green shirt and wide-leg baggy black pants. Neither of these pieces shows off my figure. In fact, they make me look like I don't have a figure at all! We decided to meet at the local mall. I was the first to arrive so I waited outside JCPenny for him. When he got to the entrance and started walking towards me, my heart began to race! He didn't look anything like his pictures from the dating website. He looked much better, in fact. He was about my height, brown hair, and muscular. I mean, rippling! Not too much that it's gross, but just the right amount. I told myself that I had nothing to be nervous about because this wasn't a date. Just play it cool. When he approached me we hugged, awkwardly, and made our way into the store.

I won't go into the details of our shopping excursion, but we shopped for pants, walked around the mall visiting random stores, and talked. I can't remember how long we were there but our shopping needs were dwindling down. We were standing by a clothes rack when he asked me if I knew how to ice skate. I told him that I had been to ice rinks before and sort of skated, but I didn't know how to "really" skate. I had thought it was an odd question until he stated that we were going ice skating, but we should get food first. We decided on Olive Garden. This is where things got interesting.

When we got to the restaurant and put our name down, we were told it was a 40-minute wait and they gave us a buzzer. Damion said this was perfect because he wanted to stop by his house to get his sweater for the ice rink. I had never gone out of the area with one of the table buzzers and was afraid to do so. I was thinking some alarm would go off and we would get into trouble. But Damion assured me that the device would only start making a loud, constant noise until we returned to the area. A few minutes into our drive the buzzer started to do just that. I covered my ears against the noise and Damion swiftly sat on the buzzer for the rest of the drive. He made a joke of it by lifting his butt every so often to let the sound get louder and softer. We started dinner on a good note until my phone went off.

Remember how Blake had asked if I would drive him to the grocery store after work the next day? Apparently, I had misunderstood him because he started texting me asking where I was? Saying that his shift was over, wasn't I coming to get him? I felt like a complete idiot! I was embarrassed that I was having this text conversation on what had become a date. How was I supposed to explain this to Damion!? In keeping with my honest policy, I told Damion about what was going on. He was unbelievably sweet and understanding. He offered to take our food to go, pick up Blake and take him to the store, then drop him off at home so we could continue our night. I asked Damion how I would explain him to Blake? His solution was to tell Blake that Damion was my gay friend and we were having a night out. Damion claimed that he could pretend gay rather well and proceeded to demonstrate. Through my laughter, I thanked him but declined the offer. I wasn't Blake's chauffeur or personal assistant, and I sure as hell wasn't his girlfriend. He could find his own way around. I wasn't going to mess up a date with a person who was actually interested in me! The rest of dinner went well and we were off to the ice rink.

We got on our skates and hit the ice, sort of. It turned out to be the most fun I've had ice skating! Damion said that he'd played hockey as a kid and could teach me some basic skills so that I didn't fear the ice and hug the wall. He brought me to the middle of the rink and had me move my feet all over. Left, right, back, and forth. He told me to pick up my feet as though I were walking. After teaching me some simple techniques, we were skating along, and I had no desire to hug the wall for my life!

After a while, we got tired and decided to take a rest in the penalty box. We sat side by side and Damion took my hand in his. We kissed there for the first time. It was really sweet.

One can only skate for so long before your ankles feel like they're going to break off, and it was getting late. Damion took me back to his place where we walked to a park and talked some more. It was about 11 at night when my dad started texting me, saying that I needed to come home. Damion agreed and drove me back to the mall where I got my car and went home.

It was a lovely date! There are a lot more details that I left out, but one can only share so much without killing the story. I don't remember where our second date was, but I remember when he met my best friends.

The next big date we went on was a wine tasting in which my best friends were going to attend. Roche', my friend of now twenty plus years, with her husband Kevin, and my best friend from high school, Catherine. It had been about three weeks since Damion and I started dating, so everything was new. I wasn't afraid for him to meet Roche'. She was married and our relationship was always even-keeled when it came to the opposite sex. Meaning if we went out somewhere one of us didn't always get hit on or weren't even into the same guys. Now, Catherine was another story. She got hit on every place we went. You may think I am exaggerating, but I assure you, I am not. On top of that, everyone liked her! Every guy in school, in public places, everywhere! Every male wanted a piece of her. So I was afraid of what would happen when Damion met her.

Everything started off fine. We were drinking and talking and having a good time. Until Catherine wanted to check out the red wines. Roche' and I didn't like reds, but Damion said that he did. So Catherine and Damion went about three years away to check out the reds while Roche' and I hung back to talk. As they approached the red wine stand we watched Damion put his hand on the small of Catherine's back. We talked and watched the two of them like hawks, knowing what was going down was not kosher. In the midst of Damion's "tasting" with Catherine, he decided to come over and give me a kiss. Not a "we're in public and I want to kiss you so I'm going to keep it simple." It was a deep kiss with a little tongue. As he pulled away I asked, "Was that to remind yourself who you're really here with?" To let him know that I saw how he was acting and didn't like it. He had a small look of shame and embarrassment and walked back to the reds table. Later that night when the five of us were talking and getting ready to part ways, Roche's husband, Kevin, made sure to make an awkward comment about Damion being exclusively my boyfriend and that he should be more attentive. Everyone picked up on it. It was awkward, but I was thankful to Kevin for sticking up for me.

That's where the night should have ended. That's where we all should have called it a night and gone home. But it wasn't, there was more. Damion, Catherine, and I decided to extend the night and go to the beach. While walking along the beach I could tell that there was something wrong with Damion. I knew exactly what it was, but I needed to hear it from him. I walked over as he stared out into the vast ocean and asked him what was wrong? He admitted that it was Catherine. I knew that he liked her. He liked her to the point where he was not able to have me and her in the same room and be OK with it. The thing I feared most had come true! I walked away from Damion even after he asked me to wait. I crouched in the sand, barefoot, as the water kissed my toes. The voice inside my head was rational and straight to the point. "This was bound to happen, you know that. You know how guys feel about her. This is not going to change. You need to get out! He doesn't even like you enough to stay away from your best friend! And you watched her flirt back with him! You need to get out! Run as fast and as far as you can the other way. GET OUT!"

I walked over to Catherine and told her that Damion liked her. Her words were, "Oh, my gosh! I had no idea! You know that I would never!" I told her that I knew. Because I thought I did. But even if she wouldn't, how could I trust him? I didn't really know him well at all. I couldn't trust him.

When we parted ways and Damion and I went back to his house, I talked to him about Catherine. I told him that she was one of my best friends, and he couldn't keep his hands and eyes off her all night! I told him that I was done. I was going to take the things I had at his house, go home, and that was it.

One thing you have to understand about Damion is that he's not just a "smooth talker." It's more than that. For his job, he was trained on how to talk to people. To know the right words to get someone to think what you want them to think and do what you want them to do. Mind you, this early in our relationship I didn't realize this about him. He talked me out of it. He said that, "She reminded him of his wife and that he just wanted to hug her." Oh yeah, that was the other thing. He told me when we first started dating that he was divorced recently. He'd showed me pictures of her and she was a lot like Catherine. Short, petite, long brown hair. So when he made that excuse it made sense to me. I stayed, and it was the worst mistake of my life!