Status report

I told Sweet, Smart Scientist last night that I had gone on a date last year with someone who was clearly looking for someone to get married to, and that even if we had hit it off better, I wouldn't have been a good choice for that guy, since I wasn't looking to get married then. And what does Sweet, Smart Scientist ask?

"What about now?"

Has a way of cutting to the chase, don't he?

I took a while to answer because I was thinking about it, and he apologized for asking an inappropriate question. No, no, I said, I didn't mind the question, I just wasn't sure what the answer was. Finally, I said, "I just want to be with someone and see where it goes. I don't have an agenda. I don't have a timetable. I don't have a schedule in mind."

I didn't want to ask him what his thoughts were on the subject, but you kinda have to, don't you, in that situation? And I was curious. So I asked, in a light tone, "What about you? Do you wanna get married?"

He smiled and said, "Maybe we should wait a bit." Hee! I immediately backtracked, of course, and said I meant in general, did he want to get married in general. "I know," he laughed. "Yeah, I want to get married eventually. I'd like to have a family someday."

And that is where we left it.

Public displays

This afternoon, Sweet, Smart Scientist walked with me out of his building, and, halfway down the block, put his arm around my shoulders. I put an arm around his waist, and we walked back to my dorm this way, which caused me some slight anxiety, since it's well traversed by Crimson law students.

Isn't it always weird, the first time you show the world that you're a twosome of some sort? Being unclear on our status myself, I felt kind of preemptively defensive, like I would have to explain to any curious acquaintance that well, we've only known each other a couple weeks, and we both know this is likely to be over at midsummer, and we've just decided to go with things, and no, we haven't had the state of relationship talk, but I like him, and he -- well, he made me chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs and sausage and coffee this morning, while bidding me to relax or continue sleeping, so he appears to like me too. Either that, or he was really hungry. Mighta been both.

Anyhoo. Last night we went to a fancy bar across the river and drank fancy drinks, and it didn't seem so weird for him to put an arm around me in a bar full of drunk office workers, but today in the cool gray light of a cloudy Saturday afternoon, it felt ever so slightly momentous to walk down the street, so clearly a pair.