Part 3 - How hubby and I almost never were

So we left off where Hubby had been interrogated by Beautiful B over pizza.

I was oblivious to what is now obvious.  We had grown closer when I moved to the project team and sub-consciously the door was open because I was leaving in a bid to become the nuttiest accountant in this Department.

Friday dawned and my last day at work before the hard work started.  Taking my wonder drug (otherwise known as migraine medication) I was fit for work and another 7 hour drinking session.  The team and I vacated work and relocated to the nearest pub and drank and drank and drank.  The usual round the table games started, you know the ones where parents move their children across the pub....speed dating with the inevitable "Have you ever...." and "What is your favourite..." type questions - some of which made me gasp and I am no prude.

Around 8 o'clock I got a text from Hubby who was sat at the other end of the table...."I want to hold you but I can't.  but I will later tonight."  I read it in astonishment, thought "OK" and decided he had already had too much to drink.  Whilst on the subject, Hubby's right eye closes slowly in relation to how much alcohol he consumes!

Later we took off to town, Jo played some air guitar, Hubby disappeared and returned with a lollipop; my favourite sweet of choice, which mixed amazingly well with vodka, lime and lemonade.  We danced, we swayed, we drank together, we smiled at each other, we both took care of Jo.  

You know hubby is the one when he insists on ensuring Jo gets home to her husband, paying for a taxi to go 8 miles in one direction and then 12 miles back to return to me.  I dread to think how much that cost him.  

Hubby and I did hold each other that night, and we kissed and we have been together ever since.  

I am so lucky, two weeks in and he was seriously considering if I was worth the hassle.  2 puppies under the age of 6 months that barked and barked and barked made it hard for him to hear me when I talked (really I mumble so no wonder he struggled to hear me).  Luckily he persisted and decided I was worth it.  He told his mum all about me after I had sat him down to explain that I could not have children and that if he wanted any of his own we needed to split up there and then and him instantly saying that he wanted me more than any child.  

He fell in love with me more after I spontaneously turned up on his mothers door step armed with a bouquet of flowers to introduce myself and after I frequently knocked on her door for a girlie chat over a drink and biscuits.

Beautiful B fell in love with hubby because he became her friend first and foremost, then her confidant and mentor.  He went home after seeing me for nearly a year before staying over to make sure that Beautiful B was comfortable and her life was stable.  


So you see, we almost never were; firstly we didn't see the wood for the trees and then it hit us like a whirlwind and secondly my fluff bags nearly ruined it for all of us.  He wouldnt be without those fluff bags now....though admittedly he would happily remove Freddy fluffs voice box.

Part 2 - How hubby and I almost never were

How I met Hubby:  

• I worked with hubby, I was his manager, he was quiet and reserved having lost his father on a few months before.  I worried that I wouldn't be able to reach him as he seemed very withdrawn.
• I distinctly remember how he would approach me with a problem to ask advice but he would never let me do the work because he wanted to know how to tackle whatever issue it was if it came up again.
• He used to go to the coffee machine in the corridor; what I didn't know was that he smoked.  I only found that out after he had quit and we started dating.  How observant am I as a manager?!
• During appraisals he started to open up to me on a 1-1 basis about his dad, how he had received a diagnosis and died 3 months later; how he had nursed his dad for the last 3 months of his life and how he no longer could look at photographs of his dad because all he saw was how he looked just before he passed away. 
• I vividly remember feeling honoured that he had opened up to me as he was such a private person and I vividly remember him leaving the office one day and how I remained there crying having imagined what he had and was going through.
• During this time I was still a Jehovah's Witness and married to my second husband.  I was very controlled at home and having studied and been baptised as one I had learnt to supress my natural nuttiness and vibrancy for life.  I thought Hubby had opened up to me because I was so quiet and reserved and therefore "safe".  Maybe we were drawn to each other then and just didn't realise it.
• I went to work on the project side of the team and hubby and I continued to email each other and our working relationship grew into a friendship.  I remember an email discussion when hubby said he had a cold and my automatic response was "well that explains the green shirt - hides all sorts of cold nastiness."  - Hubby says he recalls this conversation as one of the first where he had a conscioius realisation that he liked my personality.
• The team used to go to the pub every Friday lunch and we all used to laugh and joke.  I distincty remember going there one lunchtime and tossing a box of tissues at Hubby and saying that I had come prepared for his cold so his green shirt wouldn't suffer.
• Many of us used to continue to drink and be merry after work in a nearby pub on a Friday and hubby and I got to know each other as our friendship grew.  Still, if anyone had said we would have got together we would have laughed at how ridiculous it was - after all, we worked together and that sort of thing was out of bounds and therefore never considered.
• Hubby once expressed his concern at how I was being treated by a man I was dating - I told him not to worry as the man was struggling to cope with the realisation that a woman could play his game better than he could.  That was the first time Hubby "noticed" me and he remembers the clothes I wore that night.
• The goodbye lunch time celebrations when I was successful in obtaining a finance role went on all lunch and after work hubby and I went to the pub to continue the celebrations.  We put the world to rights that evening and we learnt more about each others backgrounds. 
• At 8pm I figured it was time to go home and rescue mum and dad from Beautiful B.  I invited him along and we took pizza home.  Beautiful B interrogated hubby and extracted his life story.  As he said goodbye and pecked me on the cheek before leaving, Beautiful B's parting shot when I shut the door was "He is nice but there is no way he is only 32 if his mum is 70" - 11 year old logic because her nanny was 55.
• The next day the team joined me in an evening of celebrations in the nearby pub; the celebratiosn continued until the early hours of the morning.  In the pub I received a text from Hubby telling me he couldn't hug me in the pub but would later; I thought was shocked and though he was already drunk.
• Reading this back, it seemed evident that we were getting closer and closer that last week before I left the team.  All of this went "whoosh" as it sailed so far over my head.
• I was hugged later that night and the rest, as they say, is history.

Part 3 soon.

Part 1 - How hubby and I almost never were

A background:

• Dad was in the army until I was 6 during which time we moved 14 times.  
• I have a sister two years younger than I (I do not speak to her - another story).
• Dad left the army so that we could have a stable education
• We lived with Nanny in a guest house for 2 years while mum and dad saved for the deposit on a house - I loved it there, I remember helping to change beds and be at the side near the wall because I was small and serving people when I was only just taller than the table.  I wasn't a child slave, I just loved helping out....
•  I was scared of dogs - you tend to be when you have been bit by a dog through your nose at 2 years old.  The dog was bigger than me - at 6 months old the sheep dog was huge and we had been friends since it came to its owner.  Biting me for no reason resulted in the poor thing being put down and me being petrified of any dog.
• Mum and Dad took me to see some Jack Russell puppies and Bobby came home with us.  He spend his life either led on my back with his head on the top of my head when I used to lie on the floor to watch TV, or I with my head on his belly while he slept on the floor.  
• Bobby used to escape - where to, no idea but once he had wandered enough he would come home and sit at the front door and wait for one of us to walk past the door and see him through the frosted glass.
• I studied hard, I was a geek but had a boyfriend called Simon when I was 15 and we were together for 4 years before getting engaged.  I moved in with him and his mum to help her with the bills and we last another 6 months before I came back home to mum and dad.
• I met my first husband, got married within 6 months and was pregnant 8 months later.  Beautiful B was born and the marriage went downhill.  I filed for divorce and Beautiful B and I were given a roof over our heads by mum and dad.
• Beautiful B grew up to have blonde hair just like I did when I was little.  Mum and Dad let her have a rabbit (I was never allowed one when I was little!) which lived with them until she died as she did not like our house when Beautiful B and I moved back into our home.
• I met my second husband, became a Jehovah's Witness and was controlled to the extent that I was banned from drinking Coca Cola. I rebelled, he treat Beautiful B awfully and that ended our relationship.  He refused to move out, I bought a dog for Beautiful B; something he would not let me have while we were married before we agreed the marriage wasn't working.  Dad intervened to get him to move out and I got a sense of satisfaction when he wanted some time with Fred, Beautiful B's giraffe of a dog, to say goodbye.