You have to ask! Ben of course, but I will go back a bit to tell you why.

It was a Thursday and I was in my newly purchased Comic Book store, wondering if I had made the biggest mistake of my life buying it as I looked at the mess that surrounded me. Emmett and Uncle Vic were helping me to get it organized; Ma had just arrived with lunch when the bell over the door rang. I didn’t even look up; I was too intent on satisfying my hunger, until Emmett said something.

I remember lifting my eyes and there he was. Christ he was gorgeous. He was wearing blue jeans, denim shirt and a brown leather jacket. He still has that jacket. Actually he’s tried to put it in the clothes bin for the Centre a few times but I sneak it out and hide it at the back of our closet. There is no way in hell that jacket is leaving our house!

I watched him picking up a handful of comics before turning to speak to Ma and he smiled and that was it. I was lost.

I walked over and talked to him. I probably came across as some geek and I’m sure I even blushed under the steady gaze from his blue eyes, but to this day I still remember every word we exchanged.

I didn’t think love at first sight existed until that moment and when he came back the next day, wearing that jacket again I might add, and asked me to speak to his class I said yes. The thought that I would have to stand in front of a room of people and speak didn’t actually sink in. All I could think of was that I would see him again.

Of course it didn’t happen, well not immediately at least. I chickened out. Nothing new there huh! Ben came looking for me one evening just after I’d closed the store. He didn’t seem pissed that I hadn’t turned up, he just asked me to come another day but I said no. Then I realized that I may never see him again and there was no fucking way I was going to let that happen so I told him how I felt. He listened and didn’t make my obsession, he actually called it a passion, about comics seem weird. Most guys I’d met in the past had taken one look at my apartment and high tailed it out of there. Somehow I knew Ben wouldn’t do that. When he got to see it that is. And if I had my way I knew that was going to be very soon.

So I went and talked to his class, stuttering and stammering to begin with but the moment I turned and looked at Ben, seeing a slight nod of his head in encouragement and a smile touching his lips, I forgot about all the bullshit I had written in my notes and just spoke as me. Seems like that was the best thing I could have done.

That night he invited me to his apartment for a drink. I’d spent hours deciding what to wear, in the end giving up trying to look smart or sophisticated, as if that would have worked anyway. He’d seen me at my worst; things could only get better I decided.

I was pretty sure he was interested in me, he hadn’t actually said anything but it was a feeling I got when we talked and when he handed me his book, and I finally worked out what it was about - I’m a bit slow sometimes – and read the dedication I knew I was right.

I didn’t know what to say….I mean he was a college Professor and author…I ran a comic book store….I didn’t know anything about him…but the moment my lips touched his, I knew he felt the same as I did. I had found the love of my life.