Is this love?

As I sip on yet another vodka water in a crowded club, I think to myself, WHY?! Why did you allow yourself to be suckered into going out, and to Coco’s, of all places. Cocos is where older and younger people go to have dinner and drink and dance to Latin music. I despised places like this. It’s always sweaty creepy dudes and way too many women making bad decisions, both in fashion and who they leave with. Well, here I am. Pretending to be having a good time while two coworkers make out, and another is dancing with randoms. Then, bam! Did this motherfucker really just spill a drink on me??? Between the dance floor and the bar, there’s a small partition where these guys were drinking. Apparently their hands are sweaty too, cause he spilled his entire drink on my arm and my jacket I had resting on the partition. I was already kinda irritated so I flicked the drink at him and asked, “you want that back”?

This is how I met Damien* I saw Damien earlier, and I told my coworker(Angelica*) how he was my type and pretty hot. So, when he looked at me talking to his brother he came over to me. “Are you by yourself?”, “no”, I responded, as I pointed to my coworkers. He then asked if I wanted to dance. In my head, I figured, bitch you’ve been single like three years, stop playing and just dance. So I did. I’m kind of an asshole, so as we started to dance I felt some noticeable muscles under his dress shirt and asked, “do you workout?” He was a little taken back by my “confidence” and laughed, and then responded, “yeah, like three times a week”. A few songs later the club lights turned on and the dancing was over. I’m now walking to Angelica and he stops me to hand me his phone. Like, he just hands it to me. Doesn’t say shit, just hands me a older Samsung phone with a screen so cracked that I know I’m gonna cut myself. In my head I’m thinking what the fuck do you want me to do with this shit? Do I look like I fix phones? Still, I put my number in the phone, look to him, and say, “nice meeting you. Call me”.

On my way home, my phone was blowing up. At the time, I was single, so I had a few options as some of us women do at times. I got home at nearly 3am and there goes Damien calling. “What are you doing” he asked. ummmmmmm, really... “I’m in pjs and I’m going to bed, like most people”, I said. “I’ll go pick you up right now, I wanna get to know you better”, he replied. “Oh, yeah, get to know me at 3am, I bet you do”, I responded(told you I’m an Asshole). I am pretty ok with getting to know someone at 3am, but I don’t know him like that yet and I’d like to keep my record clean. But, I came to a compromise. “How about you meet me up and we can talk in my car”, I said. Knowing damn well I have a small ass car with a obnoxious middle console that would force us to behave. “Ok cool, send me the address”, he said.

He showed up in a old ass busted up car with a busted windshield and a hood that was a different color than the rest of the car. In my head all I could say was, don’t be a bitch, you’re not rich either, he seems nice, don’t look at the car and phone. So, I let him in and we talked. We talked literally until the sun came up. In those hours I learned that he had just moved back home from California three months prior. He was still married, but separated after he left his wife in Cali, and he had a 4 year old son with a different woman he dated in Cali. He worked part time for the same company he’d been with for 7 years. He had dreams of having his own business and he was currently trying to move up in the company. He was so honest and I could see how passionate he was about success that he wanted. He was currently living in the basement of his parents house that he shared with siblings, and he was just trying to get himself together after leaving what he called “an abusive marriage”. He apparently left his wife because she was an alchoholic and hit him at times. I understood everything he was going through. I had been living in my dads basement for almost a year after leaving my kids dad the day he almost killed me. I felt such a connection and felt so glad I met someone who seems so sincere. At nearly 7am he said “I gotta go cause I have church in a few hours, but I’m going to call you”. He gave me a kiss and he was off.

I had an awesome Sunday with the kids going to Starbucks and the mall and just hanging out. Around 4 I get a text.

Damien: what you up to

Me: shit, just hanging with my kids

Damien: wanna come by later and watch a movie or something?

Me: sure, I can go around 8

Damien: ok cool, 1**** C*********

Around 8 I leave the house to head over. He texts me to ask if I was on my way and I responded that I was. As I got closer I texted my godmother and gave her the address cause the road in the way was sketch as fuck!! Like, no street lights, wild animals, is that a fucking chicken coop?!?! I finally get to the address and text him that I’m there.

Well, this is a basement. Yup. You live in a basement. This is a little different from my basement living that has paneling on the walls, a covered ceiling, a bathroom, shower, kitchen. You have a door and half wall that makes a room. Still, in my head I told myself not to judge.

We sat on the bed to watch whatever movie he got from Redbox. And after talking a while and making out a bit, it happened. He touched me and kissed me and made me feel like I was everything. We ended up chilling minus the Netflix, and around 2am, I went home.

The next morning Angelica couldn’t wait to hear all the details. She was so happy for me. They knew what I had been through and she wanted to see me happy. That Monday morning there was definitely a smile on my face.

Around 11am he texted me

Damien: can you leave for lunch

Me: yea

Damien: meet me at Saco’s Tacos

Me: ok

I get to the taco place and this fool had already ordered for me and was waiting. He said he was going to work but he wanted to see me. His job was like 40 mins away from the taco place and 30 mins the opposite way from his house, but only 10 mins from my job. So, I believed he really did wanna see me, and I thought it was cute. We ate and hung out talking and then I rushed off to work.

Later that day he asked if I wanted to stop by, so I did. The sex was so good. I had learned a lot after being single and I could have good sex alone or with someone, but this was good. He was just that right amount of rough and he knew when to let me take over.

Friday morning came and he asked if I had any single friends. So that night me and Angelica went bowling with Damien and his brother. They actually hit it off and although this was the same brother who dropped a drink on me almost a week prior, we were all having a good time. We all went back to their house and went our separate ways.

The next morning I went home. Later that day he asked if I wanted to go to the gym. I was going anyway, so we met up. We became gym buddies and went every day that week. The following Sunday after the gym I invited him to my house to eat and watch a movie. I knew my kids would be asleep cause it was 1am, so I wasn’t worried about watching a movie. I was wrong. About twenty minutes in, they both walk out. I explained he was my friend and we were gonna watch a movie and then he was leaving and got them back in bed. A few days later Damien asked what we were doing for thanksgiving that week. We didn’t really have plans so we decided to have me cook and Damien, his brother and his best friend would come.

Thanksgiving morning, I woke up and proceeded to make a FULL ON thanksgiving meal. Like a Latin and American meal, which equates to a shit ton of food. And just as planned, they came ready to eat at 7:30. Around 11, Damien’s brother and friend get ready to go. Damien brought a bag to stay. And he did. He stayed every single day after that.

*names changed cause these are more fitting 😂

****there’s so much more to this story. Hope you like it. I will be continuing the story next week