Back in high school, my friend Dave would used to host parties at his place out towards the eastern end of Queens. It was there that Rydia first walked into my life at age fifteen. She was amazingly cute, and her braces and glasses gave her this geeky appearance that made me fall head over heels for her. My mind was full of questions: what did she like to do for fun? Did I stand a chance with this girl? Did she like Star Wars? I had to find out.
But there was one major problem: being the awkward fifteen-year-old geek that I was, she had this wonderful effect of turning me into a nervous, stumbling wreck whenever she was anywhere near me, kind of like kryptonite to Superman. Whatever bravado or well-rehearsed lines I had for her would collapse in a matter of seconds as soon as I was within inches of her. I was a gutless wreck.
From that point forward, I never saw her often. I would occasionally run into her at parties and gatherings, but we never really talked much, since she was the quiet type who never really had much to say. I eventually got her number, but not in the context that I would have preferred. It was more of a "hey can I get your number to keep in touch," and less of a "hey can I get your number to ask you out on a date?"
Not that this mattered. You see, she was the kind of girl whose window of opportunity was incredibly short; if she was ever single, she would never stay single for very long, and since she only got hotter when she ditched the glasses and braces, guys would ritualistically flock to her like salmon going upstream a river, all for the one chance to win her affection. In fact, I never knew a time in our lives when she was ever available.
Time went by, I went off to New Paltz for college, and those four years were an adventure all on their own, but we'll get to that a bit later.
I changed a lot during my time away from the city, but when I moved back home, one thing never changed: she still had that glowing green kryptonite aura around her, but that wasn't the only obstacle that I had to overcome: in 2006, she got together with a guy named Marv. I never asked her for any details but the story goes that they met at a club one night, and had been together ever since. Unfortunately, all of Rydia's friends unanimously disliked this guy for good reasons, and for the next three years, we would witness a tug-of-war between her friends trying to convince her to dump the guy, and her trying to keep a flimsy, one-sided relationship going.
For two years after that, Rydia was a chapter in my life that was left closed and untouched until Cecil and Kain walked into my life and reopened that book. The times I spent with those two were a whole other adventure, but that's for another time. The important thing is that up until that point, my feelings for Rydia had been a secret to all but my close high school buddy Edge, so when they managed to get me to spill my guts, that secret was passed on to every one of our friends, including Edge's girlfriend Rosa. I still remember that one line she whispered to me as she grabbed me by the arm and walked down a busy street in Time Square.
"We always felt that you were the one that should have been with her."
That line haunted me, and my feelings for Rydia were made more complicated by the fact that she was in a relationship that not one of her friends approved of. Cecil and Kain tried to get me to come to terms with her and write an ending to that story, the end goal being me telling her how I felt about her. The thought of that turned me into a nervous wreck.
But at that point in my life, I knew they were right: if anything, I had to overcome my gutlessness for my own sake, so in the fall of 2008, I worked up the courage to do something that I should have done in the first place: ask her out. The fact that she already had Marv didn't matter to me; if I were to close this book entirely, I wanted to go out with a bang. I wanted this to be exceptionally romantic, so I came up with the kind of dumb, heroic plot that would only work in a romantic comedy: run into her at one of our gatherings, pop the question, take her out to dinner around Christmas time, then go see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, and win the girl after a successful date.
The setting was right; it was Edge's 24th birthday. We just had dinner at Luigi's in Time Square, and were about to head over to the Pour House for a few drinks. The group waited outside for a few minutes, just casually chatting, but as soon as we were ready to head inside, I took that step forward.
"Rydia, wait, I need a moment with you."
My heart was racing, and that kryptonite aura was challenging every nerve in my body to keep still and hold together, but I persevered.
"There's been something that I've been wanting to do for a long time, so I had this crazy idea that I would take you out to dinner and to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway."
I pulled out an envelop out of my jacket, opened it, and showed her the tickets inside, and when she smiled, and said, "I'm flattered...," that glowing green aura didn't seem so harsh anymore.
"...but I already have a boyfriend, so if I go, it would have to be platonic."
Bang. Kryptonite bullet to the chest.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. We continued to talk for a few more minutes, and the conversation boiled down to me telling her to think about it. The show wasn't for another month, so we had time to think things through. She didn't have much of an opinion but from what I was told, she said that she didn't know what to think. At the very least, I took a huge leap forward for myself.
I eventually did go through with taking her out, but the date itself didn't go as well as I had hoped, and it opened up a whole other problem that would linger on untouched for the next few years, but I'll get more into that next time.
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