The driver opened the door for me and I got out. I walked over to check my mail as the driver pulled off. It was nothing but bills and fliers. I wished someone would send me a check. That’s what I wanted to happen. Why did I have to be the one sending the money? Maybe someday it will be the reverse.

As I walked through the door, I saw Charlotte and Brian sitting on the couch watching TV. They both looked over as I walked in the door. They also had shit-eating grins on their faces like they knew something. They so didn’t know a thing. Well, it was about time that I wiped those grins off of their faces. I couldn’t wait. “Hey guys. You weren’t waiting up for me, were you?”

Charlotte smirked. “Of course we weren’t waiting for you. We’ve only been up for about an hour. But you…..you’re wearing the same clothes from last night.”

“Yeah, and….?”

“It’s just that, well, didn’t you learn anything after Connor?”

At the mention of Connor I had an outburst of laughter. “Ironically I was in a hotel next to Connor’s building last night.”

They both looked really confused. Brian asked, “I thought you had a date last night.”

“I did have a date last night,” I said. “He was staying at that particular hotel.”

“So he’s not from here?”

“No, he’s from Los Angeles.”

They both still had this really perplexed look between them. “Okay,” Charlotte mused, “Why would you go on a date with someone who wasn’t a local, after everything we talked about?”

I sat down next to them and took Charlotte’s hands into mine. “Considering who it was, there was no way I could refuse.”

Charlotte remembered yesterday. I could tell in the way she said, “That’s right. We never did find out who you were going out with; we left in such a hurry last night. So who was it? Was it some stranger in the mall?”

I gave them both my most mischievous grin and proceeded to pull out some pictures that Jason and I took last night before we left Lincoln Rd. It was one of those photo booths that you might find at a fair or carnival. Jason thought it would be cute. I didn’t disagree. Though I had warned about the press and stuff. He kissed me in public and pushed me gently into the booth.

I handed the photos to Brian and he looked up at me and smiled. He then handed them to Charlotte and gave me a high five. Charlotte was speechless, which was a first. Her little smirk was definitely gone by then. She handed the photos back to me and got up from the couch. Brian asked her what was wrong but she didn’t say anything. She just left the living room and headed to their bedroom where she promptly closed the door. Suddenly, she screamed. Brian and I looked at each other and smiled.

When Charlotte emerged from the bedroom, she appeared calmer. She walked over to me and gave me a giant hug. “Are you fucking kidding me?!” She hardly ever swore mind you. “You went out with Jason Branton?”

“Correction,” I piped in, “I went out and made out with Jason Branton.”

Charlotte moved us over on the couch and sat down next to me. “So, tell us what happened.”

I told them the whole story; from how we met, until our goodbye kiss. After I finished the story, and Charlotte finally calmed down from excitement, I went to my room so I could change out of my clothes from the night before.

At last I felt like myself again. I knew that I had showered at Jason’s hotel room, but not being able to change into new underwear and different clothes made me feel weird. Being as OCD as I was, I liked to be in new underwear on a new day; it’s just how I was. I would feel less dirty if I had at least that. Oh well; I had just met my future husband, I think. That is all that mattered at the moment. Well, if he could be my legal husband that would matter more. I had always wondered when gay marriage would be legal in this country. Canada already had it and I think Vermont had Civil Unions, but that’s all. I considered that to be a shame.

Later that day, I called Jean and conferenced in Matthew so I wouldn’t have to repeat myself. With all of their questions, it took me an hour to tell them the whole story. After I hung up with them, I went about my day. It was pretty uneventful. I wrote down some lyrics, played FF9, did some laundry and watched TV. Ironically, one of the shows I watched that day was “Kansas”. It aired the night before, but I missed it because of the date. It was a rerun, and the new season wouldn’t start for another month, but it was an episode that I hadn’t watched. The show actually looked different now that I’d met Jason. Hopefully when I moved to LA Jason could take me on the set. That would be so cool.

As I was getting ready for bed, Jason called. Charlotte answered the phone. I thought she was going to have a heart attack before she gave me the receiver. He and I spoke for over an hour before I had to call it an evening. I had to sing pretty early in the morning.

The feelings I got when I was speaking with him were so foreign to me. I hesitated to call it love; love at first sight even. Who would have ever thought? How could someone like me, James C. Taylor, succumb to love at first sight? The whole idea was pretty ridiculous. Or was it?

Jason told me before we each hung up that as soon as he was free again, he would call me. True to his word, he called me a few days later while I was at work. It was the start of something special.

Next Chapter: Something New