Part 8 - keeping the secret

Ends up Jon and I made the perfect couple.  There was no need to "discover" what ticked us off, there was no weirdness that comes with a new relationship.  But there were still the butterflies of first kisses, the long good-nights in the hallway, the sleepless nights.

 
For anyone that's thinking about dating your roommate - it's not for everyone.  Especially if you don't get along.  We were best friends, trying to get to know each other again in a completely different way.

And then there was the thing with work.  We didn't want to tell anyone, but decided that we couldn't keep our closest friends out of the loop.  We spent so much time with them, there was no way that we could hide it.  So we told Nate and Laura.  Nate was spending just as much time at our apartment with us and we didn't want to pretend anymore.  Laura and I spent a lot of time together scrapbooking and there was no way I would uphold a fake conversation.  So they were the only ones that knew. 

We took a good amount of trouble from others at work.  They liked to tease us, but majority of them didn't honestly believe that anything was going on between us.  Some of the newer guys and gals that were hired would ask the others if we were dating and people joked, but no one could really say for sure.

We didn't mind the teasing really - we were teased for it before we were dating, so it wasn't unusual.  And we didn't exactly make it easy when we went away on vacations together or spent weekends in our hometowns.

 

  

 Things got even harder to keep things under wraps when we made the decision to move from our 2 bedroom apartment to a smaller one bedroom.  It was a tough decision and neither one of us wanted to leave our gorgeous apartment in East Haven, but they raised the rent and we wanted to be closer to work.

We searched online and through ads and finally found a small in-law apartment in Guilford.  The owners were amazing - Jon and I fell in like with them instantly.  Jim and Sandi, both writers, were thinking about renting out their in-law apartment for the first time.  We met and proved to be a perfect match.  For months to come Jim and Sandi continued to play a large part in our lives - but that's for another time.  Oh, and the apartment was ok too.  So we moved.

 

That's Dave's truck filled with our stuff. Remember Buddy Dave? PS- do you love the lamp?

This was a big step for us.  We talked and talked and talked about moving to a 1 bedroom apartment.  I know that for most people it's a big decision to move in together, but Jon and I were already living together.  But living together in a 2-bedroom apartment was safe.  We each had a bedroom to escape to when things weren't going right.  Even when things were going great, it was the safety of knowing that we each had our own space that kept us going.  And moving to a 1-bedroom apartment was scary.  But Jon and I, well, we were brave!  We looked in the face of the scary 1-bedroom apartment and we said, you got nothing on us!  So here we were.

Scary one bedroom.  Intimidating, isn't it?

This was the beginning of something more.  The challenge.  The test.  We had taken our casual relationship to the next level.