divine angst

OK, I think is the last of the requests until I get the Tahoe thing written.

Fitz asks for the story of how Mr. Angst and I met.

We actually met on July 4th. We were both at a mutual friend’s pool party. I was in the pool, sipping a margarita, when I wandered over to the edge where Mr. Angst and a friend were sitting. Tequila makes me chatty, so I introduced myself. We had a nice conversation, but for some reason Mr. Angst didn’t get my number. I am pretty sure alcohol was involved in that oversight—on my part. I should have just tracked him down and written it on his chest. Ah well.

A few weeks later I was at a bar with some friends when Mr. Angst walked in. He called me Katherine. We laughed about that and started talking—until a (female) friend of his showed up. She tapped him on the shoulder from behind, and when he turned around to see who it was, she completely turned him around and I was suddenly facing his back. Now I was alone, so I turned to his friend H. and, unfortunately, H. got my number on the pretense of including me when they all went to see X-Men. And then Mr. Angst couldn’t get my number, because that’s, you know, not cool to do to your friend.

Opening weekend of X-Men, H., as promised, called and invited me to see it. Not sure Mr. Angst would be there, I brought my own friend as insurance, just to make it clear that I was not on a date with H. Mr. Angst was there, but wicked hungover and hardly conversational.

Finally, about a month later, Mr. Angst, out with H. one night, asked him to call me, to see if I wanted to meet up with them. I think he was trying to figure out what was going on with H. and I—he was pretty sure nothing was going on, but wanted to make sure. So H. called me and I met up with them for a few minutes. I didn’t stay long, but I that night decided I couldn’t wait any longer for Mr. Angst to figure things out. I had his number because H. had used his phone to call me, so the next night, I polled some of our mutual friends, to see if I should ask him out. They all said, emphatically, “YES!” so I marked my calendar (yes, I actually marked my calendar) to call him Wednesday. (This was Monday.) I figured Wednesday was the soonest I could call him without seeming too pushy. I had never asked a boy out before and I was nervous—but VERY excited.

The next day, Tuesday, was my birthday. Somehow, Mr. Angst found my email address on a friend’s party invitation and—men, never do this—sent an email asking me out.* The email also wished me happy birthday, and I still have it saved on my computer. Yes, I admit it, I saw the email and my heart did this funny jumping thing in my chest.

So we had our first date that Friday and we’ve been together ever since—coming up on five years now.

*I said yes, but I repeat: don’t ask a woman out via email. Call her.