I picked up Jimmy from an elevator in Building 18 two years ago.
It was nothing like me thinking of him as a potential boyfriend at the time. It just happened because that for:
1. We were the only two in the elevator and the silence was awkward.
2. I was moving to a different building soon and I had seen him hanging around in the building for years.
3. Some how I knew his name was Jimmy and always wanted to confirm.
4. Ok.. fine.. he is pretty cute after all…
To break the initial silence, I tried to start a conversation.
“Are you Jimmy?”
“Yes” *Two little dimples started showing up on his cheeks*
“I’m Jane. ” *I extended my hand*
“I know…”
“….” ( :-# err, what am I supposed to say now?)
We shook hands like professionals, said good bye politely and went different ways when the elevator stopped. I forgot all about the encounter until a couple weeks later, when Jimmy pinged me on instant messenger. We started chatting more and more frequently and soon became friends.
The first time I noticed Jimmy was probably the third year after I joined Cisco. It was during an all-hands meeting, when Jimmy was called to the front to give a demo for his product. I only remember looking at his clean facial profile and his dark eyes and thought “wow, what a handsome kid” — well, he did have a baby face, which he still has.
So again, I didn’t look at Jimmy as a potential boyfriend. But it was truly pleasant to have him around as a buddy — He’s very sweet, polite, smart and fun. Jimmy always gave me a sense of security since day one. There’s like an insurance card on his face stating that he’d never hurt me in anyway. We went out for late dinners or pearl tea at midnight, studied together in the bookstores, hung out on Santana Row, shopped for jeans in SF, shared a piece of tiramisu on the street, chatting and laughing about stupid things online until 2am in the morning, etc. etc.
Jimmy never stopped surprising me. Just when I thought that he was such a mama’s boy, he asked me to go for a furniture shopping for his new house. I thought that only girls would pick a color scheme for the house, but what we have now is a mordern little hideout which we both love. I thought that he wouldn’t know how to wash dishes, and turned out that he is a pretty good cook :). I thought that he couldn’t do much around the house and learnt that he built the giant fish tank from scratch, rebuilt his 4runner inside out. I couldn’t water a plant on time, while Jimmy have been taking care of his fish for 14 years. And right when I thought he was much more mature than I thought he was, I found out that he played video game 360 days a year and calls out for “mommy” when he needs help :).
Shopping for furniture with Jimmy was quite interesting. The TV was the first thing Jimmy got in the house and then he figured that a couch would be very necessary. I was a little confused and tried to remind Jimmy that he “should go with his girlfriend for a furniture shopping”. I forgot what his answer was but we went together eventually. Naturally I assumed that I’d have better taste than a boy, so I gave him opinions on the pillow color, couch, table linen and he bought the green/red/chocolate/yellow striped pillows that I had suggested — they are sitting in the closet as of today.
The furniture shopping led to a hot pot invitation when Jimmy got his couch. We spent the whole night chatting, joking and enjoying the hotpot. When it got late into the night, we started talking about things happened, our attitude of life, what we wanted to do in the future, yada yada yada. That night changed my impression towards Jimmy completely, after I found out his views towards family. We became boyfriend/girlfriend “officially” when I answered “yes” to his question on instant messanger “are you my girlfriend?” a week later.
I’ve been the happiest “me” ever since. I’m feeling very lucky, for the day I “picked up” Jimmy from the elevator.
Jimmy >>This is a lovely story by my sweetheart above, but I couldn’t help but add my comments to it though.
Here’s the vesion with the commentary.
