Our First Date

I had mentioned I would write about our first date. Before I do, I just want to say that I will not be mentioning any names of anyone who was involved that night – mainly out of respect for them. Also, some of you may feel involved as I mention some things… I don’t mean any disrespect. I’m just speaking my truth.

Torey was on his way from Dallas while I was in Fort Worth hanging out with some friends. This was before the era of cell phones and Google Maps so it took a while for him to get to me. When he finally got closer to where I was he had called the number I was at, but I wasn’t in the room at the time (something like that anyway). Poor guy kept trying to reach me and I finally answered the call… he later told me he was gonna give up after that call and head all the way back to Dallas.

I was able to give him directions on where I was. Since I was around friends, they had helped me pick out what to wear that night. It was a pretty warm and humid summer night – August 26th of 1995 (I had to look this up in my planner for that year! It’s the same day we got married in 2000 and I had no clue until last night!). I wore a black t-shirt dress with a pair of black leather sandals – remember those dresses!? Torey walked in wearing his blue and white hickory striped overalls that were what you’d see a railroad worker wear from back in the day. He even had a matching hickory stripe engineer cap on along with a crisp white t-shirt on – and of course, his dark brown Doc Martens. Yeah, one look at him and all the butterflies in the world landed in my stomach and I had to catch my breath.

The first thought I said out loud before he could reach me was, “I gotta go change – I need to be in overalls, too…” Yup, the inner tom-boy in me was pleading to get comfortable all over again.

I was convinced not to by the ladies around me and before you know it he was standing there smiling at me. Oh goodness, those eyes!

I introduced him to the people I was with, made small talk and we went to Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. We decided to go to the movies at the AMC theater – and by the time we got there, only one movie was showing for our preferred start time.

Ready for this? The movie was, “Something to Talk About.” I mean … I couldn’t make this up even if I wanted to!

He got the tickets and we went in – not sure if it’s still like this now, but back then you had to take the escalators up to get to the theater rooms. I was standing in front of him and thought I felt a little nudge on my ass and looked back at him – he wasn’t even looking up at me at the time so I dismissed this as an accidental touch. YEARS later he told me it was intentional – LOL! Torey said he had to make sure my ass was real. SMH! Typical T-Mitch! LOL!

Anyway, Torey was a complete gentlemen the rest of the evening. He was laughing at me because an older lady kept staring at me while we had been waiting in line. He’d bring it up during the movie and say even the ladies are attracted to me. We laughed a lot that night! We just bonded.

After the movie was over we landed at a Bennigans. I was 18 – he was 19 so no alcohol obviously. I ordered a Dr. Pepper and are you ready to hear what T-Mitch ordered?? LOL! Those of you who know him now are going to crack up! A virgin strawberry daiquiri! The fruitiest of the fruitiest and it just made me smile at him even more! LOL! We always laughed at that whenever we’d reminisce about that night. We just bonded.

We talked a whole lot that evening – he was just easy to be myself around. No judgement. No preachy shit. Just a good friend. We listened to each other and it just felt really good to be with him. Other than the usual “what do you like” conversation, we had other ones, too. He told me what he wanted in life and how he’d like to pursue his desire to act. I told him how I’d love to establish myself as a graphic artist and go to school to learn how to animate and move to Los Angeles. We learned that we both wanted to end up in LA at some point. It was nice to flirt with the idea of sharing that journey with him one day, but hey this was just our first date. We just bonded.

The butterflies never really stopped that evening, but I was surprised at how relaxed and comfortable he made me feel. We talked about our families and how we felt like they didn’t really understand what we wanted for ourselves – all we wanted was to be able to define our own road and not succumb to Pre-Law or Psychiatry (or whatever medical road) to appease their own desires. He got me. I got him. We just bonded.

He held my hand as he walked me back to where I needed to be. He said he couldn’t wait to see me again and I acknowledged the sentiment. The both of us were cheesing from ear to ear quite honestly! Haha! We just bonded.

He gave me a hug and man, he smelled so good! A kiss on the cheek … and he left. Oh you’re probably wondering if we had our first kiss that night. The answer is no… and a Lady never tells. 😉 …. yeah. We just bonded.

We often looked back to that night even until recently. Torey would always tell me how good I looked and smelled… how he couldn’t take his eyes off of me. How he loved my smile, my dimples, my eyes … I would go on, too, about his own eyes, lips, and smile…. and his virgin strawberry daiquiri! We just bonded.

Eventually I would borrow those overalls he wore that day after we got together. LOL! The hat, too! We just bonded.

We just bonded…