'You're sad?'
"Yeah."
'Why are you sad?'
"Because the guy I really liked moved away and my Dad is having surgery. Everything sucks right now."
'We could go to Teardrop.'
Sheldon always knows what will cheer me up.
Always.
Months ago when I found out my Dad was sick it was right before a date with Ireland.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that right as my Dad said the word "cancer" into the phone Ireland walked up.
It was only our second date.
I didn't know what to do.
Crying in front of a total stranger is not exactly my ideal way of spending a date.
But I was in Northeast Portland.
I was at least thirty minutes away from home and I didn't want to leave.
So after I told Ireland the news I just changed the subject immediately.
Thank GOD I'm an actress.
I don't know how normal people deal with life sometimes.
Acting is my armor almost every day.
I think that's why I was so sad when he moved.
Ireland.
His flight was the same day as my Dad's surgery.
And he was standing beside me when I got the news.
How could I not think we had some significant cosmic connection crossing our paths?
And it didn't help that he was the first man I'd been with since Sheldon.
I didn't mean it to, but that made Ireland way more important than he should have been.
So when Sheldon offered to treat me at Our Place, Teardrop, it was like he was offering to take me to Disneyland.
Only instead of a castle and cartoon characters, it houses my favorite sazeracs and our happiest memories together.
Teardrop was where Sheldon first said I Love You.
And he didn't know, but it was also where Ireland and I had our first date.
Ireland's idea.
Another cosmic coincidence, I guess.
We hadn't been there in months, Sheldon and I.
Ages.
Not since my birthday, so like nine months.
I felt loved even that he suggested going there.
We've known each other almost three years.
He knows me.
When we got there he picked a table with a bench in the back so we could sit next to each other.
If I didn't know better I'd say he was planning to seduce me.
But that's always what my ego thinks. Everyone's in love with me and everyone wants to sleep with me.
I know most of the time I'm right, at least about the latter, but I still feel like an asshole for thinking like that.
Maybe they're just trying to be nice, Reese.
I always call myself Reese whenever I screw something up.
Way to go, Reese.
Nice one, Reese.
I have no idea why.
No one ever calls me that.
If anyone ever did I'd probably think I was in trouble.
'Did you hear me?' Sheldon woke me from my reverie.
If people actually knew how many times I stopped listening to them talk and started having my own dialogue with my inner monologue instead I'd probably only have like three friends.
One of them would be my Mom.
'I said if we were married I know what I'd get you for Christmas. Well, it'd be a sort of pre Christmas present. Like, maybe I'd give it to you around Thanksgiving.'
So many parts of what he just said made my mind reel.
If we were MARRIED??
Where the hell did that come from?!
When we were dating he always said he didn't know if he EVER wanted to get married, let alone to me.
Now he was planning presents for if we WERE married?
And not even for a holiday but for a PRE holiday?
What the hell could he be talking about??
"Ok. What would you get me?" I was dying of curiosity.
'A Lego. Advent. Calendar.'
Sheldon smirked proudly.
People think I'm exaggerating when they haven't met him but he is literally a real life Sheldon Cooper from 'Big Bang Theory.'
And you know that smirk of a smile that Jim Parsons does when Sheldon is really proud of something?
That same smile was on my Sheldon's face.
I tried not to laugh.
"Why do we need to be married for you to give me legos? I thought it was gonna be something really romantic or really dirty. You're such a weirdo."
And for months, I sort of thought my birthday present was gonna be a Lego Advent Calendar.
I'm secretly a five year old and it did look pretty cool.
Every day leading up to Christmas you got to put together a little lego figure.
And they were all really girly things too.
A white kitty.
A purple chair.
Even the main girl on the box had red hair.
Dammit, Sheldon.
Now I wanted one.
But I couldn't buy it for myself.
He'd made such a big deal about giving it to me and I felt like I couldn't take that away from him.
Even though I really didn't know if he was gonna buy it for me anyway.
And then earlier this week he confessed something.
Everyone was sold out of the Lego Advent Calendars.
How sweet, I thought.
He's looking for one to buy me.
But leave it to a guy to wait to the last minute to do something.
I checked and he was right.
Lego. Target. Walmart.
No one had any.
I was a little disappointed but it didn't really matter.
It was silly anyway.
Did I really need a Lego Advent Calendar?
And a couple nights ago he came over and told me Cartier had done something and I better take a look.
Cartier went to the bathroom on the carpet for the first time since I've had him a few weeks ago and I'd become a paranoid android about it.
"What did he do? Did he go to the bathroom on the carpet again?"
'You better come take a look.'
"Where?"
'Behind the couch.'
"I can't see anything!!"
'I think it's like, underneath.'
Frazzled, I pushed the couch forward and there it was.
The Lego Advent Calendar.
He'd found one.
And he didn't want to tell me where but he left the price tag on.
It was from the little indie toy store we used to always go to downtown by the food carts.
I remembered suddenly how my Dad searched everywhere to find me a Little Mermaid Barbie doll when I was a little girl.
'The Little Mermaid' was the 'Frozen' of it's time.
And Mom said he went to countless stores before he finally found one.
This was pre Amazon.
I was so excited and so happy seeing that purple Lego box on my floor I felt like a giddy child.
I couldn't believe it.
For many reasons.
I hugged Sheldon so tight I nearly squeezed him to death.
'It's from Cartier,' was all he said. 'He left it for you.'
Because even when he wanted to do something loving, Sheldon wasn't comfortable with the intensity of his love.
It's one of the many things I adored about him.
And one of the many reasons we never worked as a couple.
But love is often so very complicated.
And I hadn't felt more loved by him than the night he took me to Teardrop.
Which is also the night he brought up the advent calendar in the first place.
Which I know is another mere coincidence.
Because Life is full of them.
And they are grand.
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