Face to Face

... after over an entire calendar year. I reunited with my ex-girlfriend Lynn of 6 years.

And it couldn't have gone better.

She called me when she got off work

Lynn: Okay, I'm ready.
So@24: Okay. Well. Have you eaten?
Lynn: I'm starving.
So@24: Me too. Our movie doesn't start for a couple of hours anyway, so let's grab something.
Lynn: I know you joked about it, but we shoul...
So@24: Oh you mean go to...
Lynn: How do you know what I'm going to say!?
So@24: That diner that we used to go to right next to the theater, right?
Lynn: Augh! You knew! Okay, I'll see you in a few.

It was a miracle, but I convinced my mom to give me the keys to her Audi (sweet!). On the drive over, my hands started to shake a bit and a few butterflies started to flutter about in the ol' gut.

When I pulled up in front of the house, it really hit me: she is going to come walking out that door any second.

And she did. And she looked just like I remembered her.

She stepped into the car and smiled.

"I think we can hug."

We did. And although she couldn't see, I was grinning like an idiot.

We had 3 hours to kill before our movie started. I ran some errands with her before sitting down in the diner. It was completely empty except for us.

No awkward silences. No long breaks in conversation. We talked for two and a half hours about everything you can imagine: our past relationship, mistakes we both made, her other relationship, her break up, my friends, her friends, grad schools, my new job, movies we saw in the past year, music recommendations. Everything. I was happy to get things off my chest and I think she was too.

It's weird when you have to consciously fight your natural instincts. Walking through the parking lot to get to the theater, I automatically wanted to throw an arm around her waist like I always used to whenever we'd go anywhere. Or hold her hand during a movie. And I felt comfortable enough to tell her about this and she laughed.

We headed to get some frozen custard after the movie and agreed that Juno was "okay". It was funny driving at eating ice cream at the same time; we both laughed that we're used to feeding each other while the other person is driving, but that it wasn't appropriate anymore. So I'd grab the cup from her when we'd hit red lights. But the last scoop, she actually fed to me. It was fine.

Dropping her off, we took the back roads. I stepped out of the car and we hugged. We agreed it wasn't awkward and we were glad we could do things like this. She said she'd call me in LA and that "we weren't that far away". I said I'd love it if we did this again.

And then I drove away after I made sure she got inside okay.

I'm still the same. I'm not pining for her. I'm not wondering if this is the first steps in some quest to get her back. I'm okay with being friends.

I'm glad she's back.