How Cinnamon Gurl Met Sugar Daddy

Ever since I read Metro Mama's he said/she said posts about how she met Big Papa, I have wanted to post the story of how I met Sugar Daddy. I even asked him to write his side so we could do a he said/she said thing too. But after he said yes and then thought about it for a few days, he said, "Well I just don't think it would be very interesting. I mean, it would basically be, I met a girl in a store and she was nice." He can't actually remember any details like what struck him when he first saw me (luckily he told me in the wooing process so I remember these things). So I put the thought aside. But then bubandpie's remembrances of jobs past reminded me a couple of weeks ago, and then Em from three times three posted the story of how she met her husband (in four parts if you're wondering about the links) and, well, it's just time for me to tell the story all by myself. So here goes.

My third year of university was really bad... bad things happened and I got sick and stressed out and decided to take a year off. The plan was to move to Victoria, BC where my brother lived. But I never got around to it. Instead I worked several part time jobs, bought my first SLR, explored photography and eventually got a full time job at a failing downtown Black's store (for those outside of a Canada, it's a photography chain). I loved the manager who hired me but she left for another, more profitable store, and because our little store made very little money, the company couldn't entice a decent manager there. The woman who became my manager had zero managerial skills and I hated her. Soon after she moved up to manager, I decided I'd had enough of shit jobs and decided to finish my degree.

The whole time I worked there, I fantasized about a hot guy coming in and being floored by my beauty (which only he could see) and falling immediately in love. But with only a few more days left of my tenure there, it hadn't happened and I figured it was just one of those schoolgirl fantasies. But then Sugar Daddy walked in to get his citizenship photo taken. His hair was bleached all surfer dude cool, he was very fit, his smile crinkled up the corners of his eyes (it still does) and he had a hot South African accent (not that I knew then it was South African -- I just knew it was hot). Needless to say I got very nervous dealing with him. I took his picture with the big polaroid camera, and was pleased to see it was actually a great photo. I even said so (this is one of the few details that Sugar Daddy has retained over the years). I probably stammered, he paid, and then he left.

Later that day, I was sweeping the floor near the mall corridor and he walked by. Our eyes met, and HE NODDED AT ME! That night, I was out with my friends, and I mentioned the hot guy who came in to get his citizenship photo taken. I told them jokingly, "I don't know why he's bothering with all that process. I mean, I could just marry him." (I didn't know a thing about immigration law then. Marriage only gives you landed immigrant status, which he already had.)

The next day, the Thursday I think, he came back with a roll of film to develop. He immediately struck up a conversation, asking me how long I'd been working there. I brazenly replied, "Almost a year but I'm done on Saturday so you should come and see if your photos are ready then."

Of course I made sure his photos were ready on Saturday. But by 1 pm, he still hadn't come in. I was beginning to lose hope, but I took his phone number off the computer anyways. Around 2, I went outside for a smoke, and he arrived while I was smoking in the late summer sun, reading Gulliver's Travels for one of my upcoming courses. He said he'd read the book too, and we chatted a bit and then went into the store to get his photos. As our transaction come to completion, he started to blush and stammer, and pulled a tiny slip of paper out of his chest pocket, saying nervously, "If you ever want to talk about Gulliver's Travels, just give me a call."

That night, I was again out with my friends and I gave them the latest. I really wanted to call him the next day because I was due to leave town on the Monday but I was worried about appearing too keen. My friends all agreed, "He blushed and stammered. All waiting periods are null and void." I loved that he had his number already all written out.

So I called him the next day and although he'd lost his wallet, we went out to see an Austin Powers movie at the Bookshelf, went to the Albion for beer after, and, because he was couch surfing having just moved back to Guelph from Alberta, I invited him back to my steamy little attic apartment. And that was it. I didn't leave town for at least a week, and we were pretty much inseparable after that. The funny thing is that my first impression of him was that he was a sunny, happy go lucky, chatty kind of surfer dude. But as I've gotten to know him, he's actually very introverted and a hardcore computer geek. Well, really a geek of all trades. He told me after we'd been together for a while that he was immediately struck by my pre-Raphaelite beauty (gah! just like my fantasy) and confidence. I love that it was so out of character for him to chat me up.

Anyways, we moved in together officially after about 8 months, and eventually got married, five years to the day after he gave me his phone number, the day before our first date. Sometime I'll probably tell the story of his proposal but it's a bit embarassing for me so we'll see.