As I recently mentioned (http://melissa-singlegalinthecity.blogspot.com/2008/08/opening-vault-part-six.html), my first date with California native and “NYPD Blue” sound editor Mark (a.k.a. Sparky) delivered the unanticipated bombshell that he was divorced with a child. Since I was only 20 at the time, I responded to the news by deciding to have fun with him while he was in town and nothing more. Fate, however, had other plans for us.
I now Open The Vault and take you back to 1994...
March 23, 1994
New York City
Dear Diary,
While I was very intrigued with Sparky, his divorced dad status made me more than a little wary. I quickly shrugged it off, though, because the chemistry between us felt so effortless...Upon exiting the restaurant, Sparky turned to me and asked--
“Can I put my arm around you?”
“Sure,” I said, charmed by his tentativeness, and so we strolled with his arm around my waist. During a cab ride uptown, he sat thisclose to me. I could feel the attraction between us intensifying.
It turned out the nightclub I’d chosen was closed. We then ended up at a very different destination--the Plaza Hotel.
As always, there were several horse-drawn carriages nearby. We climbed into one and went for a heavenly ride through Central Park.
Sparky was holding me as we reflected upon what a wonderful time we were both having. Suddenly, the words stopped. I turned my face away from the night sky and toward Sparky, and we kissed. It was a kiss like none I’d ever experienced before, one that ignited every part of me.
* * *
After the carriage ride, Sparky and I sat on the steps of the fountain in front of the Plaza. We couldn’t stop talking. It was like we were trying to tell each other as much about ourselves as possible.
Sparky spoke about how much he wants to share his life with someone, a sentiment that both excited and intimidated me given the 16-year age difference between us.
It was getting late so, hand in hand, we walked back to my building. Sparky asked me what I was doing the following night. Upon informing him that I had plans with my cousin, he declared--
“I don’t care - I’ll take her out too. I just want to spend every minute with you that I can.”
How could I say no to that?
* * *
Sparky and I packed quite a bit into those first couple of days together -- from strawberries and whipped cream at NYC’s posh Regency Hotel to a second moonlit carriage ride through Central Park. And before the weekend was over, much to my great surprise, there was a ring on my finger…
Coming up…Sparky’s transatlantic grand gesture and standing up to cancer at a Dave Matthews concert.
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