I goofed.

An opportunity presented itself and I messed up. I panicked. Choked. Someone I went to high school with saw us in the parking lot when we went to breakfast on Sunday. While a nice girl, I hadn't seen her in 25 years and I really didn't need to say more than a hello. Before I could escape, she said, "Is this your husband?" I was so caught off guard, my response was pitiful. "No, this is Jose."

As soon as the words escaped my lips, I wanted to suck them back into my mouth. We quickly went into introductions, hand shakes, 'oh, I bet your boys keep you busy', blah, blah, blah. But the damage was done. As much as I tried to defend myself, it almost made it worse. Calling someone a boyfriend sounds so high school. Boyfriend/Girlfriend doesn't sound right after the age of 32. We're adults, not kids who met at a bar. What does that leave me? This is the man I'm seeing? That sounds like we just hooked up. My friend? That is dreadful. Significant other? Pass.

The good news is that Jose laughed about it. He understood the awkward and unexpected dilemma I was thrown into with little warning. More importantly he knows how I feel about him. That didn't stop him from using it to tease me all afternoon.

The better news is that he laughs about a lot of things I do. We were walking around Target after breakfast. Getting over a cold, you would think I would have tissues with me at all times. Nope. And my nose started to run. So he reached into his pocket and handed me a napkin. I smooth it out and instead of saying something like,'oh thank you' or 'you're so sweet', or even 'you're so prepared', what do I say? "You're giving me a used napkin?" (For the record, he hadn't used it to blow his nose.) Thank goodness, he laughed. Just like when I picked up a few things at the grocery store. He unloaded everything onto the kitchen table and neatly folded the bags to put away. Then left it all there. Orange juice, yogurt, cauliflower, creamer- right on the table. So I called out, since by this time he was back in the living room in front of the TV, "don't worry, I'll put it away in the fridge." As he came back in the kitchen, he was laughing, not scowling. Lucky for me. As long as we both keep laughing.