…going the distance.

Pennsylvania and Virginia are actually pretty close.
Ever since A and I started dating my understanding of something “being close” has changed a lot though.
For instance, I live pretty close to my neighbour but I am way closer to A (even with an ocean between us).

From where I lived in Virginia and from where A still lives it’s a solid 4 hour drive. I actually never drove that way myself, I’d take my car to the Vienna metro station and then take a train to a little train station A and I had agreed on meeting. It was halfway between the two of us – pretty convenient.

For our first date A stayed at his mom’s (she lives closer to VA than he does) and picked me up Saturday morning. For our second date I was supposed to come up and stay with him for the weekend. I know, it’s a bit unusual but that’s how comfortable we were with each other from the very beginning…
Anyways, so Friday night after work, I got my stuff, packed my car and drove off to the metro station, which was about an hour away. I called A when I left home, to let him know I was on my way, he told me how excited he was and that he cleaned his apartment and that everything was ready for me, he’d be waiting in Philadelphia for me… (yes, back then I did consider to take a greyhound bus to come and see him… that’s how much I loved him from the very beginning).
As I was sitting in my mini-van, listening to my ipod playlist, cursing about the Friday-afternoon-traffic I realized that a small Toyota Yaris was following me (note: from my point of view all I saw was a little eggy-type-silver-car). When I got faster the car got faster. When I slowed down, the Yaris did too.
I wanted to call A and tell him, that a creepy guy in a small car has been following me ever since I left home but I didn’t want to sound ridiculous after only dating him for a month or so.
I tried to stay calm, concentrate on driving and car-dancing.
I felt relieved when I finally saw my exit and saw that the car behind me didn’t get into the turning lane with me.

I was driving around in the parking lot of the metro station, trying to find a perfect parking space for me and my big mini-van when I saw someone running from the corner of my right eye. I didn’t really pay attention to him until he ran right in front of my car. Thank god I hit the breaks on time…

A was standing in front of me with the biggest smile. He hugged me and he kissed me, when I finally caught my breath again, I asked him what he was doing here and he said, “I thought I’d pick you up so you wouldn’t have to take the greyhound and drive 4 hours by yourself in a smelly bus… and I get to spend about 6 hours more with you now and that was totally worth going the distance.”
(note: he drives a silver Toyota Yaris)