How I Met Your Father - A Fairy Tale

Dear Murray,

Once upon a time, I fell in love.

When I was twenty-two years old, I met a man.  I was working as a bartender at a local restaurant.   It was 4:35 p.m. on a Thursday (I know the time because we  always turned down the lights in the bar at 4:30 p.m., and I was a little late that day).  He was there for a business meeting, and he ordered a Jim Beam and Coke.  I made his drink and served his colleagues -he bought the round - and we bantered back and forth in typical bartender/customer fashion.   The man and I flirted a bit, and then he went to table fifteen and proceeded with his meeting. From my perch behind the bar, I watched him, hoping we would make eye contact just once more.  We didn't.

I finished my shift at 6:30 p.m., and decided that it was just a silly flirtation with the nice, cute man.  After all, at that time in my life, I had decided to take a break from dating. 

But then.  A magic fairy intervened.  Serendipity, I tell you.

Later that night, I went to a local pub to have a quick beer with two of my best guy friends (one, an ex-boyfriend, but still good friend).  I was just ready to head home, and a man stopped by our table.  He was the same cute guy I that I had served a drink and flirted with at work.  Turns out, he used to coach my two friends at softball, and had known them for a long time.  I didn't look very nice after getting off my shift after a long day of bar tending. It was the middle of winter and I was wearing a huge coat and really warm sweatpants and a t-shirt. I had thought I was just going to head over for a quick after-work beer, then head home. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't on the prowl, looking for a date.  Nope, not this time. 

The man said, "Hey, it's you! 

And I said, "Hey, it's you!

And he said, "Wanna dance?"

And I said, "Sure!"

So we danced.  And we danced.  And we danced some more.

And he said, "Wanna get coffee?"

And I said, "Sure!"

And so, over eggs and coffee, in a booth in a crappy diner at 2 a.m., I fell in love.

I'll never forget the first message he left on my answering machine: "Hi Craig, this is Marie. I just wanted to see if we could still get together. I'm working this morning, but my number is 555-4659." 

Is that not adorable? He was obviously nervous.

I was thrilled to have heard from him so soon, so I called the number.  The number had been disconnected.  It turns out that the number was 555-4569.  Not only had he transposed our names, but the numbers, too.  We didn't reconnect that weekend, and slightly brokenhearted, I moved on.

I wrote the word "number" a lot in that last paragraph.  Anyway.

It took 3 weeks for that man to come back into the bar where I worked, and at that time, I had pretty much given up.  He was with my two best guy friends that I told you about, and they were playing matchmaker.  The problem was, I had been on a few dates with the singer of a local band, and he happened to be there at the same time, visiting me at work.  It was a bit, erhm, awkward.

It worked for the best for me, though.  The man wrote down the correct phone number, and our mutual friend quietly slipped the piece of paper to me.  That evening, I gently told the "band guy" that it wasn't going to work out, and I called the "other guy" the next day.

The "other guy" is your Dad. 

Ten years after falling in love with the "other guy", I couldn't be happier.  He's smart, athletic, strong, handsome, handy, charming, funny, a wonderful father and my best friend. 

















Plus, he does the laundry and cooks.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't all roses and hearts, and it's certainly not always a fairy tale.  Marriage is hard work, sacrifice, and compromise.  But, it's worth the hard work, the sacrifice, and the compromise.

We are happily every after.

The End.