The Everyday And More ...

Saturday, after not seeing G for nearly a week, I picked him up at his building. His car was in the shop, and I was in charge of driving. We went to his mechanic so he could get his parking sensor thing out of his car so I could park in his garage this weekend.

Well, turns out, his car was going to ready that day, unexpectedly. But not until later.

So we headed up to Julius Meinl, the Austrian coffeehouse on the northside which he loves, and had brunch/lunch there, and Jay met us to show us pictures from his recent trip to Europe.

Later, G and I ran some errands. I dropped him off at the Ace on Clark south of Belmont and went and parked the car (the lot was packed). Then, since the car was at a meter, we decided to walk the rest of the errands, which was really just to go to Best Buy so he could do research on a media PC, his latest fascination.

We left Best Buy (with me buying a CD and him buying nothing) and started to head back toward the car when he pulled me in the other direction, jaywalking across the street.

What's up?, you're wondering?

He took me to a jewelry store.

NO, not for the reason you're thinking.

"You said you were looking for a new pair of earrings," he said. Which I did say, at some point. Last week? The week before? Earlier? The stuff that this boy remembers that comes out of my mouth astonishes me. I thought men never paid attention.

So we were both looking around (it was a very sweet store, lovely things) and I noticed that the woman who owns/runs it had a few things on a velvet tray for me. Things G picked out. And the main pair that he liked were indeed very pretty, and very me, but also very similar to the earrings I was wearing, so it seemed silly to buy them. But I tried them on and they do look really lovely on me. If I do say so. Which I do.

I, meanwhile, saw a very different pair, silver and somehow shiny (not marcasite, but similar), smaller than the ones he picked out for me, but I tried those on, too. (Actually, I tried on a lot of earrings there. Mostly for him, so he could see.)

He asked if I liked any of them.

"Yes," I said. "The silver ones today."

He nodded.

"I'm buying them," I said, knowing what he was thinking.

He shook his head no.

Oh. My. God.

So the woman rings them up, he gets out his credit card, buys them for me, she puts them in a bag with tissue, all girly-like. (He asked if we needed the bag, thinking I could just put the box in my purse. I said, "Yes," and he asked, "Why?" and I said, "Because girls like tissue paper and stuff." The woman smiled.)

So we walk out of the store, I turn him to me and kiss him and thank him and say, "Honey, what's the occasion?" and he said, "Well, I might not see you for Valentine's Day" (which I already knew) and made some comment about men and feeling guilty.

I almost started crying. Not because we might not see each other for Valentine's Day, but because in my 36 years on this planet, he is the first man to ever buy me jewelry.

I'm not a big jewelry person. I don't own a lot. I don't wear a lot. But I don't have to tell you how enormously special these earrings are.

He confessed that he never would have picked them out for me. Which I know, and which is fine. Because the first pair he picked out for me were something I would have picked out, too. So we're still in sync.

We stopped in another storefront on the way back the car, beautiful furniture and art and accessories and such, and while we couldn't stay long (he called his mechanic to see about picking up the car and found out that they were already closed but waiting for him), I really loved it. On the way to the car, he asked if I liked that store.

"Yep," I said.

"I didn't," he said.

"I know," I said. "It looks nothing like your house. But it looks everything like my house."

So, if it ever comes to that, perhaps we'll have a bit of a challenge buying housey things together, but Saturday, my boyfriend bought me jewelry.

Spontaneous jewelry.