Memories - Shoes

 

I asked Emily once why me. Not why she married me, but why me as in, of all the men in her life when we met, why me? 

When we met she had a boyfriend. She had another guy who was trying to sleep with her. And another clearly doing the same. Neither cared she had a boyfriend. And there was another guy who she was friends with (a 'nice guy') also trying to worm his way into her life. So why me? 

That is, she had a man in her life, another man pursuing her, and more than one 'soft' guy interested in her, too. 

So why me?

"You complimented me on my shoes," she said.

"Your shoes?" I asked, not having any idea what she was talking about.

"It was like a month or two after we met, I had on this blue skirt suit, one with this above the knee skirt. We were in a meeting and I thought you were staring at my legs but after the meeting you said something like, those are really cute shoes, vintage like, they go well with that suit."

"Oh," I said, remembering it exactly. "I...I think I was staring at your legs," I said.

"Maybe," she said, "but you complimented me on my shoes and I was like, shit, he's different."

"Different?"

"A man would have hit on me; a normal loser buy would have been stunned that a pretty woman even acknowledge him and wouldn't have been able to talk. But when I caught you looking at my legs, you didn't do either. You didn't hit on me and you didn't turning into a blubbering idiot. Instead you complimented me on my shoes. That was so...feminine. It wasn't the only time, either. I think every time I wore something extra pretty, you complimented me the way a girlfriend would."

"Did I?"

She nodded. "Um, yea. You remember that night we went for drinks after work, you, me, that guy I was kind of seeing."

"I thought it was weird you invited me to have a drink with you and a guy," I said.

She laughed. "There's nothing weird about a girl bringing her girlfriend for drinks."

"You didn't know about Sara," I said.

She shrugged. "No...but there's nothing weird about a girl bringing her gay friend for drinks, either."

"You thought I was gay?" I blurted out.

"Was that such an unreasonable assumption?" she laughed. "I mean, what straight guy compliments a woman on her shoes? On how she dresses."

"Guys tell women they look hot all the time," I retorted.

"You never told me I looked hot, love," she said, "you'd give me a compliment like it was girl to girl. Again, shocker."

"You really thought I was gay?"

"I kind of assumed you were."

"You're serious?"

"Like I'm the only woman that thought that? Remember Jill? She totally assumed you were gay. And Lisa...and Jordan...and Erica..."

"They did not."

"Sweetie, there's something about you that triggers a woman's gaydar...mine was on high alert until that night."

"Until that night?"

She shrugged. "I had on this low cut silk blouse. Remember sitting at that table at that bar? He kept staring at my breasts, but the weird thing was, every time he did, I watched your eyes go from him to my breasts, too. Like you were starting at him stare at me. I realized right then you weren't gay, not like traditional gay, and I wondered if maybe you really did like women."

"I...did...I do..."

"That's why I asked you to come with us to the next place we were going, but you said no and stayed at the bar. I realized you liked girls, you were just shy."

"I...I am..."

"That's why I asked you out...I figured if I made it clear it was a date, if you were gay, you'd go, but make it clear it wasn't a date. But you didn't."

"Cause I liked you," I said.

"Cause I'm so hot," she said.

"Kind of."

"So, turned out you weren't gay gay, you were just a shy, sissy boy. Who knew?"

"Would you have?"

"What?"

"Asked me out if you knew I was...you know, a...a..."

"Sissy?" she laughed. "Probably not. Good thing I didn't at first, I would have missed the best part of you."

"It was really the shoes?"

She nodded. "It was really the shoes."