Love Narrative

“Love” If you had told me that I was going to fall in love with a SEAL two years ago, I would have laughed in your face and dismissed the thought indefinitely. But there I was in a bar in San Diego years later finding myself oddly attracted to a SEAL unlike any other, one that I had met in a bar and later held my hair while i lost the entirety of my stomach. Soon there after we fell in love with this sensitive serviceman.
I was new to California, new to Long Beach, and struggling to form any kind of relationship, with males or females. I was longing for girlfriends I could depend on and a stable relationship that had been lacking in my life for quite some time. Maybe it was the timing, maybe it was just fate, but meeting him that night changed
my life forever.
It was a friday night in spring and a girlfriend of mine begged me to come down to San Diego and go out to the bars, socialize a lot and flirt a little. With much resistance I obliged to her request and made the ninety mile trip down the coast. With every mile I traveled, the more irritated I became at the thought of doing anything except relax on my own couch with a glass of wine and a nice movie. You can imagine the mood I was in when I arrived to meet my friend in San Diego. She managed to keep me in check as we crawled for acceptable bars to enter for a good time. On one of the busier streets, she spotted a place that was playing “Land Down Under” by Men at Work, which was a turn on for her, not so much for me. We waited in the short line outside to enter, and when we reached the door the charge to enter was an outrageous fifteen bucks, which I was not about to pay.
“I’m not doing that,” I said to her “Not for a bar that’s playing Men at Work.” She replied with a casual eye roll and a smile and paid my cover and we went in.
He had this way about him, this uncommon sensitivity and way with his words that made anyone feel connected with him. He was more understanding than anyone I had ever known and was extremely observant, about my feelings especially. I noticed it early on in the relationship, on the phone or in person, he was very caring and supportive.
That night in the bar I had been sitting in the same spot for most of the night, right in the middle of the bar counter, with a constant stream of Scotch on the Rocks in my hand. It had been a slow start to the night, casual conversation with a man in the service, but of course he would not admit it. He was arrogant and came off as man quite too full of himself. I had known guys like this. My sister was married and recently divorced from a man like this; arrogant, self-centered, and the mindset that gave him the impression he could get away with anything. I had my prejudgements about military men, SEAL’s especially. Due to his arrogant nature, this man would not take the hint that I was not interested, and I had to verbally send him away in the most clear and concise way that expressed I was not going to continue whatever he was trying.
After sitting alone for quite some more time, one of his buddies walked over, and I was already preparing my dismissal speech to send him away as well.
He introduced himself kindly and respectfully, his name was Chris. He carried himself like a servicemen, but there was something different about him.
“What do you do?” I asked.
Of course he fed me a few lies about his line of work in the ice cream truck industry. That’s how military men worked, they never admitted to their involvement in the military until you’ve pestered them about it. He didn’t take me as a fool, however. He later told me he fed girls with lies that included: he manned an ATM and was the one who pushed the bills through the machine to the people, or he waxed the dolphins at aquariums.
“Now Chris, I will never be drunk enough to believe that a man with that haircut like that and a body as defined as yours is not military. So what do you do?” I did not take long to get comfortable enough to interrogate him for the truth. Despite not being on my best behavior that night, Chris continued to sit with
me.
He finally opened up to me and admitted he had just graduated from BUD/S. Oh great, I thought, a SEAL. I wrote him off instantaneously. I told him I knew guys like him, gave him the spiel about the ex brother-in-law. But the next moment is what changed the tide, it was the moment that would start the rest of our relationship. It caught me off guard, his response was not of defense or mockery or sarcasm, it was innocent, genuine, sensitive. His response gave me the first glimpse into the man I would become to know and love.
“I would lay down my life for my country,” he said, and continued to exemplify ways in which he would do the most selfless things for his country. He romanticized patriotism, he talked with such honor and patriotism. I could not help but fall in love with his words, his passion.
We continued to talk about a variety of interesting things, the conversation was intellectual yet not opinionated.
He never got up to leave, and neither did I. We stayed till last call when everyone was being ushered out of the bar. As we stood up, we got pushed towards each other, where we shared an intimate moment pressed against each other. I could tell he worked hard in BUD/S, his body was firm and defined.
My consistent drinking of scotch throughout the night was taking a dark turn. The second we stepped outside I lost the entire contents of my stomach to the pavement. Instead of standing awkwardly to the side, Chris was in the action, holding back my hair and comforting me.

How could I not love a girl who gets drunk and then loses it outside the bar on our first date? She was enchanting, exactly the kind of girl I wanted to spend a lot of time with, she intrigued me and always left me wanting more.

Chris was the type of man to stick by your side through anything, even when we were married and I found myself distancing myself from him right before his deployment, trying to prepare myself for when he would be gone, he would be persistent in his actions to love me dearly and keep me
close.
I was so embarrassed after our first date ending like that that I found myself avoiding him for quite some time. But he was persistent, he called me all the time, even when I didn’t pick up the time before. I found that extremely romantic. It wasn’t until a couple months later that I found myself being the first to call him, I found myself wanting to open up to him and be the one to start showing him that I’m as interested as he is.
We started seeing each other; I started to know him better. Chris was the type of man that didn’t have much to say, but was still very involved in conversation. He was the type of man that could know your feelings before you did, he was very observant of everything. He was the type of man that felt very open, yet rarely talking about his feelings or himself. He was the type of man to always comfort you and keep you strong. He was exactly the type of man I was looking for.

I fell in love that spring of 2001. I was not one who believed in love at first sight until I saw Taya at that San Diego bar in April. I knew the night we met that she was the one girl in the world who could put up with me for the rest of my life; she was smart, and could make a sexy outfit look classy, she was the girl for me.