Date #1 with Too Perfect (T.P., for lack of a better acronym): Fabulous. Long dinner, lots of "getting-to-know-you" kind of stuff. Then to a movie at the Lagoon, which was excellent. No hand-holding, but SUCH a desire to do so! And then to Bar Abilene for drinks and flirty conversation. Date over around 1 a.m. We end with a hug, which seems sweet and appropriate, and plans to get together on Thursday.

Interim: I realize that I can't hang out on Thursday, so I offer that I can hang out with him in the dorm where he works on Wednesday night, or we could do the weekend. He JUMPS on Wednesday night, which I was hoping for.

Today: He sends me the cutest, longest e-mail. It was very endearing. I wrote back my own cute, long e-mail.

Tonight: I meet him at his dorm around 8 p.m. We drive to get take-out, have some awkward conversation (still in the getting-to-know-you phase), and eat our Chinese food on the couch in his dorm room, which isn't too bad. (the room and the food) We watch a movie of his choosing, which I think is pretty awful but it is one of his favorites so I don't say anything nasty.

Through the whole movie we are nudging closer and closer together on the love seat. My foot grazes his knee, his hand breezes past my leg. Eventually my foot is sort of resting on his. Finally, shortly before the movie ends, I ask him if I can hold his hand, and he says yes.

(Can you believe how fucking old-fashioned this sounds? I'm so proud of myself because I'm trying to work on PACING myself in a relationship, which I've never done.)

We hold hands for awhile, then he ends up laying on me and I get to cuddle him in my arms. It feels like heaven. I think I miss cuddling more than anything else in a relationship...

The movie ends, we cuddle some more and chat, and he has to do some "rounds" at 11 p.m. and has to go. Shortly before he goes, we kiss a little bit. It is nice, gentle, but over too quickly! I ask him to quit his job so he can stay and make out with me. He declines. He tells me that he has a crush on me, and I tell him the same. We make plans to hang out again on Friday night--I am in charge of the details.

Yay!

Hmm, now how do I make plans so that we can be physical, but there is no pressure to have sex? (because of the whole Clap thing, ya know?) I'm trying to conjure up the perfect make-out date that doesn't ultimately lead to sex. Any ideas? Hmm, more thinking required.