Saturday, February 14, 2009

Stuck on You

Gary doesn't like to dance. He's just sure that everyone on the floor is staring at him because he's 6'5 and doesn't move with any particular grace. This used to bug me a little because I do enjoy it (and I don't care if people stare, but they don't--they're far too worried about whether or not everyone's staring at them because they can't dance either), but I've accepted it. He does like Douglas Adams and my cats and laughs at my jokes and I figure that's a fair trade off.

One summer, shortly before we got married, the college he was attending had an outdoor dance in the parking lot. We just happened to drop by in search of a friend of mine who was going to spend the weekend with me. By that point Gary and I been seeing each other for a year and a half and I knew how he felt about dancing so I didn't even ask. I just stood at the edge of the dance floor searching for my friend when "Stuck on You" by Lionel Richie began to play over the speakers.

Gary grabbed my hand and led me to an empty spot. He kissed me and whispered that he couldn't very well not dance to "our song".

Our song? When did we get one of those?

I did not say that out loud because I didn't want to disrupt a very sweet (rare) moment. I simply took the offered gift of a dance and hoped he didn't notice my surprise.

After better than twenty years together, I still don't have the nerve to ask for fear that I've forgotten something that was important to him (besides it's one of the few songs he will dance to). He sings it to me from time to time, usually late at night, when we're cuddling on the couch after the kiddos have gone to bed. In my opinion, he sings it better than Lionel Richie and I'd love to show it to you, but since the likelihood of getting him to do so in front of anyone, let alone a camera, is somewhere out near negative ninety-nine on the Probability Drive map, so you'll have to make due with Richie himself. Just imagine Richie as white and really tall and you'll be close to how great my guy is.

Hope you've had a lovely V-day. I certainly did.



9 comments:

Pencil Writer said...

Sweet memories. Made me smile.

Scotty said...

Aaaaw, that's great, Mary - and yeah, it's a pretty darn good song too.

Give Gary a high-5 for me, ok?

:-)

Hal Johnson said...

What a sweet post. I'm gonna try to ignore how Gary is raising the bar for his fellow married guys.:)

jeanie said...

Oh how beautiful, Mary!

Dr Atomix said...

You tell Gary, I'm in complete agreement with him. He's welcome to use my rational, if I sing it for others it loses its magic. Hehe.

20th Century Woman said...

I'm a new reader, but I can't wait for more. I had the same kind of Valentine's day you did. We danced in the kitchen (I don't dance in public either -- I did once many years ago and my teen-age kids hooted with laughter). We danced to Teddy Thompson singing "Walking the Floor over You". It was sort of a mixture of dancing and necking, the way it was done when we were young. We are both 76.

Debby said...

Oh, how sweet! I loved this little glimpse. I also loved 20th Century Woman's comment. I raise a toast to lovers everywhere!

Ray Veen said...

I love to slow dance with Cindy. We sing all the songs to each other really loudly and fairly poorly and its even more fun when we annoy the people around us.

Mary O. Paddock said...

PW--Thanks. 'Glad I could do that.

Scotty--I'll do. :)

Hal--He's heard about it before.

Jeanie-Many thanks.

Charles--I guess it is about magic, isn't it?

Anne--Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Debby--Toasting you back.

Ray--It is fun to give other people a reason to stare.