Chapter 2

8 months later.

I find out she's no longer dating that guy. Turns out he was rather a
nut. Not that big a surprise. But, now I'm on the hook for asking her
out, not an easy thing for one as shy as I. But, my buddies (thanks
buddies!) manage to wrangle her into going over to our local college bar
with us for some drinks. It works. We have a great time. I walk her to
her car. We almost get hit several times while standing there in a
prolonged kiss. I finally got up the nerve to ask her out on a real date
the next week.

Again, being as shy as I am first dates have always been rather awkward.
Even knowing that she really liked me -- woman rarely risks her life to
kiss a guy she doesn't like -- didn't help much. We went to the Improv
and had a great time. There was a second date, an even more unlikely
event for me. Then another and another.

It didn't take long at all to fall completely in love with her. How could
I not? She was gorgeous, smart, strong, independant, determined, ambitious
and liked Monty Python. She was a single mom doing a great job raising a
now 2 and a half year old daughter. The father wasn't around and never
would be. Even now I can't fathom how hard it must be to raise a child in
such conditions. Yet, she was doing wonderfully.

One weekend she had to cancel our date. Her daughter was in the hospital
with a particularly bad Rotavirus infection. I couldn't not see her
though. So I went to visit. I've never been a particularly child friendly
sight and at the time I had only exacerbated it with long hair and a big
trench coat. Me on a pediatric floor was a fairly amusing image. I sat
and talked with her and even joked about that. The little girl's young
roommate came waddling in, her parents close behind, stopped, looked at
me and let out a wail that reminded me of my childhood when my brother
took my favorite toy.

She never actually needed help with her classes, but I helped regardless.
Normally I hated helping people, as a natural in the subject I was asked
to help often. I never minded helping her, and usually looked for a
reason to. I was immensly happy just being near her.

At some time in that first year I found out that she had had breast
cancer as a result of her Hodgkin's radiation treatment and had a single
mastectomy. I had never thought about it before then, but she apparently
had expected me to be bothered by this. But, by then nothing about her
surprised me; much less bothered me. The very fact that she wasn't only
surviving, but thriving and improving herself made all these things make
me love her more.

Continue in Chapter 3.