A year and a half ago, I stepped inside the Orbit Room for the first time.

Yesterday, I went back.

Some life stories can’t be immediately blogged about because they make the writer (me!) feel too exposed. Too vulnerable. But when those stories are given a little time and space, twisting and turning in the direction of “happy ending,” they eventually become blogging material.

The Orbit Room is one of those stories.

On a cool day in March of 2010, I played hooky. I stepped away from my laptop and played tour guide to the band Hello Kelly. When it was time for dinner, Francy (lead singer) mentioned that his friend Matt, who I’d met once about two months earlier, was going to be joining us.

I got excited for no [apparent] reason.

Matt and I didn’t sit near each other at dinner. I hated that. Again, for no reason. I mean, he was little more than a cute friend-of-a-friend who occasionally tweeted entertaining things. Why should I care where he sits?

Later that evening, the HK boys, Matt and I headed to The Orbit Room for drinks with a side of Motown.

Matt bought me a drink.

Looking back on that night, I cringe at how I so quickly zoned out everyone but him. But I couldn’t help it. It was like we were old friends, desperate to catch each other up on our lives. Plus, he was so gosh-darn interesting and funny and attentive and attractive….

And then I went to the ladies’ room. And gave myself a pep talk.

“Nadine, don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve been charming in the company of also-charming men before. Don’t get invested in another crush. You don’t have the emotional capacity for that right now.”

It was true. The majority of my 20s up until then had been spent either running from men who liked me too much or clinging to men who didn’t like me enough. I couldn’t play games again.

At the end of the night, I hugged Matt goodbye, secretly hoping I’d see him again. But pretty certain that “again” wasn’t all that likely.

Less than two weeks later, we were on our first date.

Ten days after that, we were “an item.”

Fast-forward to last night.

I was sitting across from him. Same spot as last time. I caught myself admiring the man in front of me, moved by how some stories turn out way better in real life than they do in our heads. He bought me another drink, but this time he already knew what I wanted. We listened to fantastic Motown again, but this time we were talking about hiring the band to play at our wedding.

And I told him about my once-upon-a-time pep talk in the bathroom.

He just nodded…in victory.

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