i met dobbs by writing to him. i'd been cruising on the internet and came across a link to his writing. i was immediately intrigued and we started corresponding. a few months later, he agreed to meet me.

i know. it's boring.

i remember being afraid of what my parents would think of my dating someone that wrote the things he did (in one of his letters he referred to himself in his youth as a "cunt-mad virgin"!) so together we came up with a story to tell them about how we met. however, dobbs wasn't happy about lying to my parents so he told me that we would have to act the story out in reality before we told them about it. "that way, we'd only be lying about when it happened and since time is something i can never really get my head around, i don't have a problem with that."

he told me to take Fletcher onto the subway. at 2:03 on a particular afternoon, i was to get into the front car at St. Clair West station and he would "take it from there."

we'd traveled four stops when he got on at Museum. he took the seat across from me and started reading a book. i watched him for a minute but he paid no attention to me. i turned away from him and started entertaining Fletcher.

we pulled into St. Patrick and he started watching me out of the corner of his eye. as we left Osgoode, he got up and came over.

"hey."

"hi."

"you impress me."

"really? how'd i do that?"

"well, this is gonna sound really stupid, but i like that you really know how to pat a dog. i mean you're really good at it."

i laughed.

he continued: "no, i'm serious. i mean, maybe you're not aware of it. maybe it's innate--part of you. i've been watching you. you've been firm but not patronizing. you scratched the obvious places--chin, behind his ears, chest--but you also paid attention to the not so obvious places. the tips of his ears--"

he put his book on the floor and took both of Fletch's ears in his hands.

"the tips of a dog's ears are pressure points. you were gently massaging them, like this:"

he did it.

the other passengers were starting to pay attention.

"look at his face." i did. it looked like he was smiling. "see that?"

i nodded.

"most women don't know shit about dogs. they know cats, a beast i've never understood. but you, you've got good hands." and with that he offered me his. "dobbs."

i shook it. he got up from in front of the dog and sat beside me, book in hand.

"you know, while i was sitting over there watching you, i was pretending to read. but i couldn't pay attention so i just kept reading the same sentence over and over again. guess what that sentence was."

i said i couldn't.

"probably not. and if you could, i'd ask you to marry me right here in front of everyone."

he opened the book and pointed to the sentence.

I told Jade that if she ever got pregnant, I would be jealous of the baby because it had its entire body inside her.

"Isn't that the most romantic thing you've ever heard?"

i kissed him, then, acknowledging that indeed, it was the most romantic thing i'd ever heard.

he met my parents the following weekend. i don't think they liked the story much, but they sure as hell liked that i was crazy for him and that made them happier than they'd ever been with any of my previous boyfriends.

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