Dating : The Colour of Love

I remember Mike pacing back and forth in the living room of his small apartment, taking us through the intricacies of his planned proposal. His excitement, like his smile was infectious. In two weeks time, on her birthday, Mike was going to ask Rosie to marry him. He’d been dating her for two years, I’d given him two weeks (and that’s because he liked her).

Mike’s energy was constant all through his mini presentation. His joy on the brink of pure bliss. A godly glow to match his ridiculous good looks. He seemed pretty adamant she was the one, and I envied him, or rather what he had.

“When you’re in love, even the sky looks different. A different shade of blue.” His exact words after Rosie said yes to marrying him. Mike always had a knack for spontaneous quotes, this particular one was perhaps the finest of the lot. Most times though he was just a knock off version of Shakespeare.

“Are you okay man? You’ve been awfully quiet today.” Mike says as he hands me a club soda. “You know I can’t have my best man looking like that at my wedding.” His attempt at light humor affords me a chuckle.

“Thanks.” We both take sips of our sodas in silence, staring into the crowd that was having the time of their lives. “So, Rosie huh?”

“I know, I keep pinching myself just to be sure it’s not a dream.” He takes another sip. “You know sometimes I think she’s either dumb or sick, or both.” Laughter.

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Beth says we should name our kids Jack and Joe, she’s pretty certain we’ll get two boys. But If — and that’s a big if — we were to get a daughter, she wants us to name her Steff, after her grandmother.

“Babe, you’re not even listening.”

“I am.” I respond. “Steve sounds fine.”

“Steff.” She says with an unrelenting glare.

Beth was in my Literature class when we first met, but it wasn’t until after our graduation that we really started talking. We met at Mike and Rosie’s wedding. The fact that we shared a mutual friend in Mike surprised as both, but given his promiscuous interacting habits, you wouldn’t bet against him being friends with Oprah.

We talked about everything that night, it took the sun to separate us. In the days that followed we talked more, and went on numerous dates. The fate of our relationship was sealed with a kiss right outside her apartment on our ninth date. That was two years ago.

A couple with kids at the mall spurred our first ever baby conversation. That was a year into our relationship. From there, Beth developed a newfound obsession of watching baby videos on YouTube, and now anything that resembles an infant has her talking about kids.

Mike and Rosie’s baby shower is the venue for today’s baby talk.

“Can we talk about this some other time?” I ask, trying to avoid her death stare.

“And when is some other time? At baby Noela’s (Mike’s daughter) wedding?”

The sky is blue today. The same shade of blue it was two years ago when we first met. I’ve been staring at it for the last fifteen minutes. Nothing. Just the same shade of blue.