When we got to the hotel, Shy Boy called his parents. Turned out they were staying at a different hotel. Even though he was taking good care of me, there was something strange about being in a hotel all alone with him. It felt very couple-like, very grown-up. He insisted on paying for everything, including the hotel and all the exorbitant tolls we had to drive through on the journey. The very bare minimum I could do at least was to pay for a soda at the vending machine. He almost didn’t even want me to do that. We were racing each other to pull quarters out of our wallets the fastest and get them in the machine before the other person did first. (Sick really. I’m glad no one was watching.)
We had a nice room with a lousy lock. At first we couldn’t even get into the room because the lock didn’t want to respond to any of the key cards. Inside the room, we had our own microwave and mini-fridge as well as HBO cable, a nice sized bathroom with fancy Neutrogenia bath supplies, a desk, an armchair, and two queen sized beds. Shy Boy looked like he really needed a nap. But he didn’t want to sleep knowing his parents were coming in fifteen minutes. Instead, he gave me a passionate kiss before we headed to the lobby to wait for his parents. His parents had already arrived and were waiting in the lobby of our nice hotel with its big band music coming from the loudspeakers and a teenaged looking concierge who couldn’t quite handle his job. I got to know his parents better as we chatted for a good twenty minutes. They were very sweet, upbeat people. Shy Boy’s father liked to playfully make fun of his wife. She liked to act slightly helpless about changing the time on the dinner reservation so that her husband would feel useful. She was completely capable of handling herself, but had to play the game with the male species. We talked about our families while Shy Boy looked ready to doze off from the long car ride. His mother kept insisting he go take a nap, but he didn’t want to. After around twenty minutes of chatting, Shy Boy and I went back to our room to change our clothes for dinner. We were going to be eating at a very fancy restaurant that was one of Shy Boy’s mother’s favorite places.
We embarked down a busy highway that led to a pretty little downtown area. Apparently, this restaurant was a place that Shy Boy and his family used to go to whenever there was a special occasion. The restaurant was packed with people. The entrance way looked right into kitchen where chickens were roasting on rotisserie grills and chefs were cooking meats on wide open wild flamed stoves. While we waited for our table, Shy Boy’s mother took us outside to take pictures. At that moment, Shy Boy’s brother and sister in-law arrived. Shy Boy’s mother took some more pictures. Then we went back inside the restaurant to look for Shy Boy’s father.
Our table finally opened up and I was surprised to discover that this restaurant was one of those Portuguese places where the waiters come by and give you unlimited amounts of meats and food on skewers until you tell them to stop. We ate and ate. Shy Boy’s mother couldn’t get enough of the sister in-law and I showering her in complements about her sons. Shy Boy’s parents were darling people. Both Shy Boy and his brother are much quieter than their parents. Both parents were very sweet caring people and it was clear in the way they talked about their family that they weren’t trying to act bubbly just to impress me. I got the sense that they wanted to take good care of me and not just because I was new but because they genuinely cared. Shy Boy admitted to me several months ago that he once had a fiancé. He dated a girl for seven months and wanted to marry her, but it fizzled out because her parents were intrusive and she became increasingly cold toward him. As I’m typing now about Shy Boy’s family, I can’t believe how kind and caring they were to me and that there was some other girl at some point who didn’t appreciate this affection. Shy Boy’s family got along so well with my family because there was so much similarity. We all shared a very strong love for Judaism, Israel, food, and pop culture. Meanwhile, it was clear that while Shy Boy’s parents cared dearly about their children, they didn’t want to rule over their children or tell them how to lead their lives. To top it off, they were also great storytellers and a lot of fun to talk and to listen to.
Shy Boy’s mother insisted I take home any leftovers to bring to my own family. We were spending the night at the hotel, but our hotel had a fridge and she didn’t want anything to go to waste. She insisted on ordering me desert as well. The next day, she wanted Shy Boy and me to go to breakfast with her and some old friends of hers and that afterward we should drive past the house and old neighborhood where Shy Boy grew up. We all said our goodbyes for the evening and Shy Boy and I headed back to the hotel.
Now mind you, I’ve slept in Shy Boy’s apartment before, but never in the same room as him before. I guess it was good practice for going on that seven day cruise with him. We cuddled in his bed and watched some tv for awhile. He was as mushy and romantic as always. He joked that the double beds was just like being Rob and Laura Petrie. (The dude has an obsession with the Dick Van Dyke show.) When it was time to go to sleep, I discovered an alarming fact about him. I told him he could use the bathroom first to brush his teeth. And he replied that he doesn’t really brush his teeth at night.
…Whaaa???
Or as they say in animes: Eeehhhh?!?
>_< x.x .0.
As a person in the oral health care field, I was aghast. I could not believe I had to give him the whole “brush twice a day especially at night” discussion like he was an eight year old kid! Seesh, no wonder he had so many fillings. My scientific reasoning or good Jewish guilt, what have you, broke him down and he went to brush his teeth. Meanwhile, I really digged the whole double beds thing. I loved cuddling with him for awhile, and then retreating to my own bed to spread out in for the night. I told him if we had to live together that we should have do the whole Rob and Laura Petrie double bed thing. “Hell no,” was his response. He was so cute and fun to talk to in the next bed over in the dark, even when he started making silly clicking sounds with his tongue because he couldn’t sleep. Finally, sleepiness hit him, and he turned over and said, “Before I lose consciousness, I just want to tell you I love you. Have a good night. And I’ll see you in the morning.” He was quiet for the whole night, no snoring, except for the fact that he blurted out something incoherent in his sleep. When I asked what was up, he said, “I don’t know I’ll go back to sleep and I’ll let you know.” He couldn’t remember even having such a conversation the next morning when he woke me up with a kiss before using the shower.
We had breakfast with his mother and her former colleagues at a cheap old fashioned diner while Shy Boy’s father was off having his own adventure with his rental car in another part of town. They were all adorable bubbly women. Shy Boy’s mother was clearly their leader making sure that they all got together with each other whenever they were all in town at the same time. Then we drove over to the house Shy Boy grew up in. He lived in the coolest development as a kid. Why? Because every street was named after a type of candy! He grew up on Candy Lane. We dropped off his mother at the mall. Traffic was already bad in the early mid-day, so Shy Boy decided it‘d be best to start the two hour drive home before traffic made it a three-plus hour drive. I come away from that weekend feeling a much stronger connection to Shy Boy. I enjoy hanging around his immediate family. I love that they treated me like family. Having him around doesn’t scare me as much as it used to.
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