His name was Aleksei. He took me on the best dates. I could write a novel about all of our dates together before he passed away. The most memorable date was also kind of hilarious. It was definitely a day to remember.
Aleksei had planned this whole day together. The events of the day were supposed to be a surprise. The day started early. He picked me at 8 a.m. We were supposed to check out a new restaurant for breakfast. I was actually pretty excited…until we pulled up and it was closed. They had a water pipe burst and couldn’t open up for business. We just looked at each other and laughed. We ended up going to the local Whataburger and having breakfast there. I could tell he was disappointed. I reached over and grabbed his hand and said, “It’s okay. Shit happens. We have a whole day to make up for it, right?”
It was around 10 a.m. and we went to the mall to go shopping. We tried on different outfits and he insisted on buying me this beautiful black mini skirt dress. He was always so generous. He told me, “Let’s drop this off at the cleaners, okay?”
We stopped by his house to pick up all the makings of a picnic. We went to the local park and set up. About halfway through, I started feeling really sick. It was close to 100 degrees outside. We had to cut the picnic short.
All I did was laugh, but I could tell Aleksei did not find the humor in the situation. I grabbed his hand again and told him, “We’ll laugh about this together someday. I appreciate the sentiment. It was sweet. I appreciate you.”
We stopped by his house to shower and change clothes. It was about 2:00 p.m. when we were ready. He planned on us going bowling. I loved bowling. However, when we got there, there was a bowling tournament going on so there wasn’t any lanes open. I could tell he was 100% defeated. So, I told him we should just go to his house and chill. He mentioned the dress at the dry cleaners and we went to pick it up.
When we arrived at Aleksei’s house, his mother was waiting. She tells me to go take a quick shower in the guest room. Wearing a pair of his sweats, his mother styled my hair and put on makeup. Then, she told me to put on the dress he bought me. When I came out of the guest room, Aleksei was in a black suit that complimented the black dress I was wearing.
He had gotten tickets to West Side Story. On the way there, we got caught in traffic. There was a pretty bad wreck. We ended up making it too late to get to our seats. They had televisions in the lobby and you could hear the music. “One Hand, One Heart” came on and I held out my hand and I said, “Ask me to dance?”
I could tell that he was in no mood to dance, but I asked him again, “Ask me to dance.”
Seeing that I was not giving up, he grabbed my hand and said, “If it would make my Princess happy. Would you dance with me?”
There, in the lobby, we danced to “One Hand, One Heart.”
It was the perfect end to a not-so-perfect date. He passed away on my 17th birthday. I still think about that day. It was a hot mess, but he put so much effort into it. I couldn’t fault him. It ended on a high note, though. That’s all that matters.
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