I used to complain a lot about my single status so some of my friends would try to match make me with people that they thought would fit my picture of an ideal partner. After being on several blind dates that were jinxed, I decided to just sit back and enjoy my single self until the right person came along. Age was aging, I was slowly heading towards forty but since I couldn’t marry myself, the plan was to wait. I cannot come and kill myself.
I really wanted to settle down. Infact I lost count of how many times I was a bridesmaid or the number of times I caught the bouquet at weddings and everyone would cheer me on as the next bride. I wanted to be the bride for a change but it was as if all the good guys had been taken. I was tired of kissing frogs and I wanted my own knight in shining armour. As a matter of fact, his armour had to be really shinny because my standards were quite high..
My weekends were getting boring. No more fun activities with my girls because they always had one family thingy or the other so as a ‘single pringle’ that I was, I went down to the sports clinic to register as a member. A game of squash or table tennis every other weekend would help keep my mind and body in shape anyways.
Apart from playing my favorite games, the sports clinic was a fantastic place to network and hobnob with people of like minds. One of such people was Lucas, a ruggedly handsome business executive who grew up in the United States. At some point in his teen years he experimented with tattoos and even though he no longer liked them, he was not ready to subject himself to the complicated procedures of removing them.
We got chatty on and off the court and I sort of noticed that he was taking a liking to me but he was not my type at all so I paid him no mind. Apart from being super brilliant he didn’t quite check any other box for me. His rugged look didn’t work for me, plus he was a widower with two kids, let’s not even forget his tattoos. He sure had some baggage.
At first glance, Lucas looked very unapproachable but on the contrary he is one of the most friendly and most brilliant minds I have ever met. It’s true what they say about not judging a book by it’s cover… but tsk he still wasn’t my spec.
I tried to imagine him infront my friends or my family. They all know that I preferred “subtle looking- baby boy kinda men” (my apologies if you don’t understand what I mean). So Lucas would definitely be a no-no for them.
In as much as I tried so hard not to judge him by his looks, I still couldn’t help it.
This guy did not hide the fact that he was attracted to me. He was all over me. After declining several invitations to go out with him, I eventually accepted the one for his daughter’s birthday party where surprisingly I happened to be the only guest. He wanted to have an intimate party with his girls and I was the only person he could think of inviting. I thought that was really sweet of him.
His girls were so adorable and he was an amazing dad. He was a charmer himself because I saw another side to him that I really liked.
There was more to him than what people like me saw on the outside.
Watching him with his kids was so wholesome, his rugged looks gave way to a sweet and very warm personality. It was hard not to like him. And the guy can cook!! He was the total package.
I started to look at him differently. I no longer saw his tattoos but I could see him for who he really is. It was not about what he had on his body but what he had in his heart. Lucas was an absolute gentleman.
Maybe I’d give him a try if he asked me out. But how about what people will say?
I thought about it and I decided that I was willing to take my chances.
I enjoyed my time with him and the kids and I looked forward to doing it again but he never asked. Did I say or do something wrong the last time? Why was he not asking me to visit again?
We talked all the time, sometimes for long hours into the night, he treated me kindly whenever we met at the sports clinic but that was all. He would buy me gifts, things he knew that I would like. He went out of his way to do things for me and that endeared him to me even more. He was naturally a selfless person but I knew he treated me specially. At this point, I wanted to be more than just his friend but he was no longer asking.
I wanted to ask if I could stop by to see the kids sometime but I also didn’t want to be too forward.
Saturdays became the highlight of every week for me because I get to go to the sports clinic but I would be lying to myself if that was the only reason why I loved Saturdays. Lucas had started bringing the girls with him and they were a delight to be around. We had the same routine almost every other weekend for over a year and it felt like they had become a part of my life. I loved them as if they were mine and it broke my heart each time they had to leave because they always took a part of me with them.
On this particular day, the games had ended and lunch was over. It was time to leave and the girls began to cry. It was either they go with me or I come over to their house. You see that moment there…that was the defining moment for everyone. I went home with them that beautiful Saturday evening and it became our home. Yes our home.
Lucas confessed that he fell in love with me from the first day I walked into the sports clinic. It was love at first sight for him. Then he loved me even more when I was at the house for the party. He could tell that I genuinely loved the girls unlike some pretentious ladies he had been with in the past. He wanted me to be a part of their lives but he didn’t want to force the girls on me and vice versa. He wanted things to happen naturally. So the girls’ outburst was all the approval and confirmation he needed that we had to become a family and that happened within a few weeks. Man couldn’t keep me away much longer so the marriage rites took place within an unbelievably short time.
I waited for so long to be married and I was rewarded with the best man ‘evur’, I inherited two incredible daughters and I was later blessed with two more.
I look back to fifteen years ago when I first met Lucas and I shudder at how I could have lost a good man because I judged him by his looks.
Most people have a story. There’s a reason why some people are the way they are. Think about that before you judge anyone.
