The Mating Bond: When Did You Know Your Partner Was Your Partner?

I was friends with my husband for about 5 years before we even started dating. It took about 3 more years before we decided to marry.

Me and my fiance started dating casually, without big words, promises, just for fun... So, we were seeing each other for three months, and one night we were out on a drink, and he had to get up early, so we went on a stop to wait for my last ride home.... so we kissed goodbye, and I got on a bus, but when I turned around he was there in a bus with me. He jumped in after me. I still don't know how did he get back that night, but I think that was the moment when we had to accept that there's nothing casual abut us. ;)

We met on CompuServe back in 1987. (Anybody who knows what CompuServe is without looking it up is old.) Back then, it was long-distance dial-up hard-core flirting at 300 baud (to save money) and reading each other's philosophic posts about life and love.

I flew 1500 miles to meet him. When I left home, it was on a jet at 8am and 90+ degrees. I changed planes in Chicago and walked across the Midway tarmac to get on a twin-engine puddle-jumper that made three stops before landing, at 7:30pm, at an itty-bitty airport where the temperature was 40 degrees and falling.

He was wearing a short denim jacket and jeans, nothing special. He had a short brown beard and mustache, which I found intriguing. He hugged me hello, so tightly that I took a deep breath ...

And I succumbed.

Oh, I was done for. He smelled so good! I'd never, ever reacted to anyone like that, like I was drowning (in a good way) in someone's body odor, of all things! I buried my face under his chin and relaxed. All the frustrations of the trip just flowed off me, like water.

I thought it was artificial --- soap or deodorant, shampoo or cologne --- and over dinner I asked him what he wore. I had no idea what I was talking about. What I wanted to wallow in was a combination of Ivory Soap, Right Guard, and Listerine ... and, mostly, him.

It's been 25 years, and as I write this, he's in the kitchen behind me, washing dishes. (Yeah, I'm a sucky housewife.) The beard that was so short is now ZZTop-long, and more gray than brown (he blames me for every gray hair). He moved down here 23 years ago, for me and for a better job. He doesn't use Ivory Soap, or Right Guard, or the same Listerine anymore ... and yet, I'm still wallowing in the way he smells. I still sleep best when I share his pillow and am enveloped in his scent.

So, yeah, when I read my first paranormal romance --- Lover Avenged --- I got the scent thing.

i new my fiance for about a year before we started dating, but i new he was the one 3 or 4 months before we were a couple and now 15 years later hes stil the one.

I knew after 5 meetings that I was more comfortable with my husband than anyother man I'd ever met. I knew after six months that I loved him and after a year that I wanted to marry him. It took him a little longer :0) I've never felt so safe, loved, and wanted as when I'm with him. He's truly one of a kind.

Two things happened when my hubby and I were in our early, early 20s dating in college.

1. During sex, I got my period much to my embarrassment. He went out and bought me a pack of pads without any types of bitching.

2. A few months later, we had a pregnancy scare. We were discussing what would we do if it turned out I was. (I wasn't. Turned out I had developed a hormonal problem.) He very calmly said that it was my body and he would support any decisions I made. But hoped I'd keep it, because he said he believed that I would be the best mother to his children.

So here we are 20 years and 2 children later. :-)

We fell in love almost at first sight, but it was a few months later that I realized I never got tired of being with him. I get overstimulated easily and after spending time with people need to retreat and recharge. I never felt that with him. I can't imagine I could have married anyone else.