Principal Meets the Friends

My friend and boss, Mark decided to have a get together for his 50th . Mark's birthday happened to be on the Saturday when the Principal and I were supposed to meet again, but since he hadn’t proposed any plans I figured he could come with me or bow out. His choice. I realized how awkward it would be to meet all my friends. Hehehehe... That could be rather entertaining!

Surprise, surprise, he wants to come to the party after all. I thought perhaps he'd suggest we get together another night so I could enjoy my time with my friends, or some such excuse. Part of me thought he was being a stand up guy coming out to meet all my friends, to endure being inevitably left out at some point, and having everybody judging him. My friends would say they don’t judge, but they totally do. It's one of the many things I love them for!

To be even more brave, I invited the Principal to meet me at my house. Our previous two dates had been in his area and now he would get to see what the suburbs look like in my world. The house was clean, smelled great..

Admittedly, I was nervous. This was now a real date. Checking myself out in the mirror to make sure my hair looked okay, my ass didn’t look too big in my jeans, and sometimes just to stick out my tongue at myself for getting wrapped up in this dating mess all over again.

He was late, which was a good thing. It gave me time to compose myself and relax a little. To my utter astonishment, however, the Principal showed up bearing gifts. I opened the door greeted by a smiling guy holding a Christmas bag proudly in both arms. Unable to help myself I giggled. Not my proudest moment, beacause it's a strange sound coming from me. The expression on his face was like a kid riding a bike for the first time.

I tried to ignore the bag once he was inside the house, but didn’t want to seem rude. I mean, what do you say? “Ooooh! Is that for me?” when quite obviously it IS for me? Out of the slightly ripped bag came a 12 pack of Pacifico and a package of Oreo cookies! Awwww! I had shared with him on our last date that I don't drink milk. The Principal inquired how I was able to eat Oreos. With beer of course! This had brought on disbelief and a little disgust from him before he was able to admit that he couldn’t knock it 'til he tried it.

I was blown away by the thoughtfulness. The Principal always appeared to listen to me but to actually do something with the information he gleaned from our conversations… is a little bit scary. Meaning I like it and that is never a good sign.

In addition to the beer and cookies he gave me a Christmas card. Snowman yelling at his snowdog who'd left "ice cubes" melting on the floor. He wrote himself: Good for two free tickets to any show you want to see. “One of your school’s shows?” I asked. “No! Any show you want to see. Musical, ballet, whatever.” he said. Hmmm... This is turning out far worse than I ever could have imagined.

The Principal offered to drive to the bar so I could drink and have fun. Considerate or hoping I’m a sloppy drunk so he can take advantage of me? Fear was making my back hurt. Please, please don't let him be a clinger! At first, I focussed just on talking to him but as the night wore on my fantastic friends included him in their conversations. I didn't have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings or ignoring him.

The Principal did a fine job of reaching out on his own too. I could tell he was nervous in the beginning but handled the situation like a pro. Once, when he excused himself to the bathroom my friends Kelly and Julie leaned forward to tell me what they thought.

“He is a very good looking man!”-Kelly
“Wow, he seems normal!”-Julie
"No! I mean he's a really good looking man!"-Kelly
"Pretty soon you'll be counting the ceiling tiles, Katester!"- Markie

Thank you, thank you I say and proceed to fill them in on the thoughtful gift he’d brought with him to my house. Kelly just kept letting me know what a handsome man he is. I think she was going through some withdrawls... All too soon, the Principal returned silencing our discussion. I took a closer look at him after all Kelly’s purring. He really is good looking. Clean cut, but not in a preppy way. Really nice eyes with a bit of devilish gleam when he’s saying something funny. The Principal is a hottie. Well, I had not counted on that. I must be as blind as I am deaf!

Back at my house, we sat on the sofa talking and laughing. The Principal kept getting closer and closer, occasionally giving me a kiss. I must be the most non-girl of all girls out there because I was still having trouble figuring this out. He asked to stay over. There you go. I figured it out.

Being the nice person I am, I told him that he could stay over, seeing as it is a long drive back up to his place and it was so late at night. But, I was very clear that there was to be no hanky panky otherwise he had to sleep in the spare bedroom. I should have just put him in there in the first place, but then I'd have to clean another set of sheets...

The Principal seemed very understanding and even a bit shy about sleeping in my bed. He got a good laugh at my oversized sweats even though he'd been warned. I offered sleep pants when I saw that he was sitting uncomfortably on the bed in his jeans. He deferred, saying he'd feel silly wearing a girl's pajamas (I wasn't about to tell him I've systematically stolen all those comfy sweats from men over the years). He asked if it would be okay for him to sleep in his boxers. Whatever floats your boat, dude. Just don’t float it around my marina.

In bed we kissed and he got shy again. The old me, the one that pursued men and found them charming when they don’t know what to do with themselves, teased him. He came back, a little stronger but very respectful of the boundaries I had outlined. No hanky panky. There was some G-rated necking until settling for sleep. It was kind of a buzz kill.

I don’t think I slept more than two hours. I kept waking up next to a furnace in the middle of my bed. Why do men radiate heat while they sleep?

Way earlier than I normally like waking up, I was awake. The Principal lay on his side, facing away from me. I wish I could say I lay there, so we would have an opportunity to cuddle when he awoke. I’m just not that girl.
Instead I became accutely aware that I had to go to the bathroom. Number 2, if you know what I mean. All that damn beer I drank the night before had fermented in my stomach and needed release.

My house is on the older, thinner walled side so I was at a loss about what to do. I could run the risk of going to the spare bathroom in the hall, but it shares a wall with the master bedroom. The guy might be asleep but what if he wakes up and hears me? The discomfort was beginning to make me go as cross-eyed as my cat. I decided to get up, go in the kitchen and make some tea. Maybe if I go outside and let out a little gas that will make the pressure lessen… Well, I gave that a try but it only made the need to go that much worse. There was nothing to be done except wait. In pain.

About the longest hour later, the Principal, with his hair sticking out every which way, came into the kitchen where I was writing about our date in my laptop. Giving me a smile he came over for a hug and kiss. He wrapped his arms around me, rubbed my back, all the nice things I hear guys are supposed to do when they really enjoy spending the night with you. And he didn't even get any! While my brain enjoyed this, my gut was telling him to get the hell out.

We chatted about the party the night before and I even offered him some of my tea, knowing he's a coffee drinker. I wanted to be convincing so we could hurry this cozy scene along and get him on the road. As much as I was enjoying his arms around me and how sweet he was being my insides continued cramping and distorting painfully. There was a moment I would have believed an alien was trying to scratch its way out of my abdomen.

When he announced his departure plan (at long last) I had to mask my elation, which was almost as difficult as keeping the alien from bursting out of my belly. I said all the "Aww, its too bad you have to leave so soon" and "I had a great time" crap until he was safely out the door. I even made sure he'd driven away, certainly not wanting him coming back and knocking when I was indisposed. Then I sprinted to the bathroom. It was the best moment of my life! Thank God! I was smiling ear to ear even though I had an audience of a waggy tailed dog and screaming cat.

Now that I felt better, it was back to bed so I could re-wake-up at a more sensible hour. Preferably by lunch time.