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"Kelly, honey, we're at your car," Dale said, before pressing a sweet kiss to my lips.
"I can't believe I fell asleep! I completely failed you in my navigating responsibilities," I said while stretching and mentally kicking myself in the butt for missing out on private time with Dale.
"Well we did have an active afternoon," he said with a chuckle. "Go ahead and give me your keys and I'll start transferring the girls over while you collect the leftovers Shawn sent."
Once we'd gotten everything transferred over successfully, Dale enveloped me in his arms before kissing me goodbye.
Luckily the girls didn't wake up when we arrived home, and I was able to put them straight to bed, shower and cuddle into bed by 9:45 pm.
Just as I was drifting off, my phone began to buzz.
"Who on earth is calling me?" I said groggily before answering the call. "Hello?"
"Kelly, I don't know your middle name, Jenkins. Did you forget our standing date?" Dale said in his deepest voice.
Suddenly jolted into consciousness, I said with my sassiest tone, "Dale Wilson, now why would I assume that you would be calling me when you just saw me forty-five minutes ago."
Sounding slightly wounded Dale retorted, "Well I'm sorry for wanting to say goodnight to the woman I love."
"I didn't mean to imply that I am unhappy with your call. Your calls are always welcome," I said, hoping to convey my sincerity.
"I know,” he said with a sigh. “I think I was feeling a little insecure about not getting to see you till next Thursday. A lot happened today, and this is all so new to me."
"Dale, trust me, I'm just as insecure as you are. After my divorce, I figured it would be at least a decade before I found someone to date, let alone fall in love with. Everything with us comes so easy that I keep waiting for the plot to twist."
"What do you think our next step should be?" Dale asked.
"What do you think our next step should be, Dale?" I ask, wanting to avoid saying the wrong thing.
"Kelly, I already know that eventually, we are going to end up married, but I know that we also need to take our time getting there. So, you tell me, what label will make you feel the most at ease with our relationship?"
"I'd like to tell everyone that you're my boyfriend, but I think we should wait to tell anyone other than adult family members."
"Why is that?" he asked, sounding disappointed.
"I heard a lot of the moms talking about you back at the open house, Dale. Announcing our relationship publicly before I have a chance to make friends would make me a pariah. Selfishly, I want to make some friends locally since most of my old friends live over an hour away," I explained.
Sighing into the receiver, Dale said, "I guess I can understand where you're coming from, but I want us to acknowledge here that we are a couple, a completely exclusive couple. And..." he paused as if contemplating his next comment. "I want to tell the kids when you get back from fall break. When I greet you after a long day, I need to be able to kiss you. Deal?"
"Deal!" I said as a giant smile crosses my face.
"Awesome. Now before we end this conversation, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room. What on earth is your middle name?"
"Ugh! I'm not sure I can divulge that without losing cool points." My middle name was genuinely horrible, even my namesake said so.
"You don't know my middle name, or you wouldn't say that about yourself."
"Okay, how about this, we'll text each other our middle names and institute a minute-long talk ban after we read them," I said to add some humor to the situation.
"Agreed!"
Dale –
Fernando
Kelly –
Imogen
That was not too terrible. Maybe Dale's family had Latin roots? I thought as I patiently waited for our minute of silence to end.
"That is NOT a name to be ashamed of, Kelly! I think it quite suits you. Is it a family name?"
"Sort of. My Mom's best friend from the military is named Imogen. The story goes that Mom was ready to quit basic only days away from graduation after my dad threatened to divorce her if she continued. Imogen convinced my mom that if Dad truly loved her, he'd wait an extra four days for her to graduate.
"It turned out to be the best advice, because a week later Dad was injured at the construction site he managed and was disabled for the rest of his life. If Mom hadn't stayed, they would have ended up destitute. Thus, I was named in Imogene's honor, and they ended up following each other from base to base for the rest of their military careers. It's why my Aunt Imogen's daughter Joanie and I were raised as if we were sisters."
"I'm guessing that Joanie was named for your mother?"
"You are correct! My mom and Auntie Imogene were great together. It was like having two moms growing up. Do you know, that to this day they still go on vacation together around the anniversary of their basic training graduation."
"Do they get up to any shenanigans?" Dale asked cheekily.
Laughing because they did, I said, "If only you knew! Now, tell me how you ended up with the middle name Fernando. Are you secretly Latin?"
"Haha! Not at all! I am the definition of Weird Al's White and Nerdy to the extreme. It's way more embarrassing than that," he said. "Ever heard of the musical group ABBA?"
"Have I HEARD of them?!? I'm like their biggest fan! Wait! Are you named after the song Fernando? Please make my dreams come true and say yes!" I squealed while bouncing up and down on my bed.
"I was," he said in defeat. "Now they didn't tell me the story till years later, but apparently on their wedding night, my parents stayed at an old bed in breakfast with VERY thin walls. My mom was horrified when she heard the neighboring couple having sex. Seeing as it was her first time, she asked Dad to turn on the radio so that the sounds of their lovemaking would be muffled to the neighbors on either side of their room.
"The song playing on the radio during their first time was Fernando by ABBA. Which is also the night I was conceived."
"Oh, I wish had been present when your mom told you that story. You must have been mortified."
"I was. But in my parents' defense, they thought they were drinking from the non-alcoholic punch bowl that night and had consumed the equivalent of six shots each before realizing they had been drinking from the wrong punch bowl."
After several minutes of companionable laughter, a sobering silence took ahold of our conversation.
"It's almost 11:30 pm. We should probably go to sleep," I said reluctantly.
"I didn't realize how late it was. Sweet dreams, Imogene," he said in a caressing voice.
"Till tomorrow night, Fernando."