Here for Me

"WEIRD! I win! I’m the best!" you shout, glugging the remainder of your wine and doing your dorky little happy dance.

The corners of my lips stretch almost to my ears. I look at you and my heart swells in my chest. How is it possible that this little creature is mine? MY wife! No one else’s. Mine. I know we’ve been together for years, but I still look at you like I did the first time I saw you.

I finish my glass of wine and pull you into my embrace.

"You are the best, sweetheart," I whisper into your ear, pulling you closer.

I don’t tell you that you spelled "weird" as "wierd." That is not important.

"Okay, that was Scrabble. What else you wanna lose at?" you ask, swiping the tiles into a pile with your palms.

"Oh, you’re getting cocky, babe," I say jokingly, pointing my finger at you, eyes narrowed. "Remember the last time you were a bit overconfident?" I ask, throwing an imaginative dart at you.

"Or did I lose on purpose?" you smile knowingly and bite your lower lip.

"Keep telling yourself that," I laugh.

That lip thing has always been your 'tell' that you’re getting a little tipsy. Three glasses of wine. Or two cocktails.

I never told you that either.

The wine glasses quickly get covered in condensation as I top up our drinks. I push yours closer to you and fill mine as well. I almost overflow it—so enchanted I am by you. You sway your hips slightly to the melody you’re quietly humming.

I cannot resist. I put down the wine bottle and walk over to you. Very gently I take your hands and lift them on my shoulders. I slide my hands to your hips and behind your thighs to raise you up. You laugh quietly and whisper, “Hi,” as you press your nose against mine and lean in for a kiss. Your tongue is cold from the drink and the sweetness of you mixes with the tanginess of the wine magically.

You run your fingers through my hair and pull away a quarter of an inch. That’s two inches too much.

"It’s almost sunset," you whisper and point at the window.

"It is," I answer and carry you there, one hand supporting you, the other one around your waist.

"Fifteen," we say at once, and our lips meet again.

The golden sunbeams of the setting sun spill all over us, binding us together into one.

We look at the sun until it sinks behind the horizon leaving only an orange glow.

"So, darts next?" you smirk and slide yourself onto the floor.

"Absolutely," I smile and give you a peck on the top of your head.

There’s a quiet knock on the door. My gaze instinctively lands on you, but you’ve almost vanished. A quiet sigh escapes my lips.

"Come in," I say and turn to the door.

A doctor opens the door and steps in slowly.

"May I come in?"

"Not now," I tell her, hoping for your quick return.

"My name is Dr. Michelle Schultz. I’d really like to talk to you."

"Now is not a good time." I glance at the door behind which you went just before the doctor knocked.

"Why not?"

The doctor stares at me, and I feel like the question she really wants to ask isn’t the one she actually said out loud.

"I..." I stutter. I don't have a reason she'd understand. "I’m busy," I say finally.

"I won’t be long."

"Sure."

"Are you alone?"

For others, yes. For me, never. I’m not going to explain that to her. "Yes."

"She isn’t here?" she asks warily.

"Who? Anna?"

She nods.

"No, she’s not." Did she hope to see her, I wonder.

"Does she come back after?"

"Yes... sometimes it takes a while." I don’t care how she interprets this.

"Did she leave just now? Before I came?"

I glance at the point where I last saw you.

"Yes."

The doctor takes a few slow steps closer and points at the chair that you were sitting on earlier.

"May I sit for a moment?" she asks, pulling the chair closer to her.

"Sure," I say, knowing she’d sit even if I’d say no.

It’s just easier to get it over with. I glance at the fading orange edge of the horizon. She follows my gaze and scribbles something in her notebook.

"I’m sorry for interrupting your evening. What was on the agenda today?" She looks at the messy Scrabble board.

"It’s kind of our anniversary today."

"Kind of?"

"Yeah, well, not the wedding anniversary, but the night we met."

"Oh! Happy Anniversary, then! How many years ago was it?"

"Thanks. Fifteen."

"That’s a long time."

"Not with Anna," I say. "With her it was a glimpse."

Dr. Schultz writes something in her notebook again.

"So, is this what you do? An anniversary tradition?" she asks, pointing at the Scrabble board with her pen.

"Something like that." I nod slightly.

She doesn’t seem happy with my answer so I inhale deeply and continue, "We love board games. Any games, really. That’s how we met."

"You met at a game night?"

"In a pub, actually."

"Okay, I’m lost. You met at a pub playing games?"

I stare at the drops of condensation crawling down the side of a wine glass.

"Yes."

"I love listening to the stories of how couples have met. I’d really love to hear yours."

I don’t know what she came for exactly. But the look in her eyes says she’s not going to leave before she gets it. I sit down as well and travel back fifteen years.

"It was fifteen years ago. I went on a blind date with Stacy at this bar…"

"Oh, wait, sorry – I thought her name was Anna."

"Yes, my wife’s Anna. But the day I met her, I was on a blind date my buddy had arranged. That girl’s name was Stacy."

"Oh, sorry. Go on."

"We were at this pub, and the date was going horribly. Stacy was judgmental and whiny. She complained about everything and was rude to the waitress. I couldn’t wait for the date to end.

Then suddenly, at the back corner of the bar where the dart board was, I heard a girl shout “I win! I’m the best!” and laughter so enchanting that I just had to turn toward that voice.

That girl was performing the cutest little happy dance I’d ever seen. She had her back to us, so I didn’t even see her face, but a wide smile spread across my face and I knew I was in love.

Stacy’s snort, "Umm, embarrassing…" brought me back to reality.

I said I was not feeling well and stood up. Stacy clearly wasn’t happy, but I just paid for our meals, led her to the door, and told her I was going home. I put her in a taxi and sent her on her way. After the taxi had turned the corner, I went back inside and sat at a table closer to the darts corner."

"So you just walked up to her and introduced yourself?"

"Oh, no. I sat at that table drinking my beer, watching this group of girls play darts. She actually walked up to me and asked me to play."

"Oh, how sweet! She liked you from the first moment too!"

"I wish! Later it turned out her friends had been teasing her about being too decorous and well-behaved, and they didn’t believe she’d have the guts to come and ask me for a game.

To prove them wrong, she walked up to me and said "Mister, would you please come and play a round of darts with me." I’d never heard a sweeter invitation in my life, and I obviously said yes.

Then her friends wanted us to make this game more interesting and proposed that the loser buys the winner a pint of beer. She refused. She hated beer. Then her friend shouted, "Okay, no beer. The loser kisses the winner."

I couldn’t ignore the plight her friends had put her in, so I walked up to her and whispered, "Play along so they’ll leave you alone and let’s just enjoy the game. You don’t have to kiss me." And so she did.

We played. It was a very even match, but she did lose in the end.

Her friends obviously teased her, and told her to come and give me the hard-earned kiss, but I just shook my head and said she didn’t have to, and I sat back down at my table.

The setting sun was right outside the window in front of me, so I didn't see too well what was happening around me. But suddenly she was standing in front of me, with a glass of white wine in hand, which she downed in one breath. With the same motion, she leaned over and kissed me.

Turns out she could’ve easily won, but lost on purpose so she’d have an excuse to kiss me."

I feel a tear rolling down my cheek, and I wipe it away before the doctor notices.

Doctor Schultz was feverishly scribbling in her notebook.

"So yeah… that was how I met Anna."

"This is a beautiful story. One of my favourite ‘how we met’ stories I’ve heard."

"Yeah, mine too."

We sit in silence for a short while. Something has changed in her face but I can't quite put my finger on it.

"I’m sorry for interrupting your anniversary evening. I’ll leave you to it," she says finally and leaves.

_________________________________

Roomful of white coats waited for Dr. Schultz in the office.

"So, how did it go?" asked the head of the department, breaking the tense silence.

"I.. um.." Dr. Schultz clicked the pen, her gaze somewhere far.

"We were hoping you’d be able to diagnose him."

The clicking stopped.

"I know. But I can’t. I don’t think this man is sick. Not in any way that fits our categories."

"Doctor, that man talks to his dea…" one of the doctors said.

"Yes," she quickly interrupted.

"So?" he demanded.

She hesitated. "Leave him be. This is his life. I can’t help you. I’m sorry."

_______________________________

You finally come back to the living room, carrying a dusty dartboard and handful of darts.

"I got to tell our story again," I say, as I hang the board on the bent nail that we hammered to the wall for just this purpose.

"Oh, I love our story! Did you tell them how I let you win, so I could kiss you?"

"I did."