My husband wants me to start dating.
Wait, it gets better. He wants me to start dating women.
If this isn’t among his sweetest, most endearing qualities, I don’t know what is.
See, we’re not that wild, exciting swinging couple you might be imagining. About as far from that as possible.
The deal is Husband is worried about one of the greatest treasures of my life: my girlfriends.
Let me tell you, I have some amazing friends. What I lacked for in a husband and kids all those years of being single, I certainly made up for in friends.
The local gang is unofficially known as “The Pretty Ladies,” simply because we enjoy the pretty.
When we first started dating, Husband didn’t get all the Pretty Lady gatherings — birthdays, holidays, just because, and more.
“You meet your friends every Sunday morning to go for a run?”
“Yeah, it’s the greatest,” I smiled. “We run, we talk and have coffee. It’s like our weekly golf game,” I said trying to talk in guy terms.
Thing is, as a single dad raising his daughter alone, my husband didn’t have time for things like golf. And I think he was kind of jealous of my time with my friends.
But a couple years into marriage, he gets it. Boy, does he get it: how my girlfriends energize and motivate me. How they love me. How they fill up an entirely different part of my heart than the huge chamber that’s reserved for him.
Husband is freaking out because two of my best friends, my running Pretty Ladies, are moving on; one moved to Montana, and one is getting ready to move to the beach full time.
What do you do, Dear Reader, when your girlfriends move away?
If you’re me, you’re sad and trust that another great Pretty Lady is on her way to fill the void.
If you’re Husband, you freak out. “We need to get you some new Pretty Ladies!” he declares on a daily basis.
And he’s looking everywhere.
I come back from an exercise class.
“Wow, that was a good workout,” I share.
“More importantly, did you see any potential new Pretty Ladies?” he asks, desperate.
No matter where I go, the grocery store, walking the dog, carpool line, “Meet any PL candidates?” he wants to know.
I’m not worried, because of all things I’m not good at, making friends is not one of them.
I keep my friends, too. Still have that same bestie from the first day of kindergarten.
Weekly, Sunday runs might not be the same, but we’ll run together when they come to visit.
I might try out coffee with some new friends or fit in an extra girls’ trip this year, just to stretch my Pretty Lady wings.
Whatever it takes to make Husband happy.
