"You Never Cooked For Me"

Those are the words I heard through my cell phone as I made dinner for myself last night. What was on the menu? Salmon cakes (think crab cakes but replace the crab with salmon) and linguini with mushroom alfredo sauce. What can I say, I've been watching The Food Network. So I'm telling all this to my "friend" (keep reading for the explanation), who is going through a fast. Naturally she hates on me for eating. So during the cooking process she says the title of this blog. Before answering, I scroll through my mental Rolodex thinking of all the times I've cooked. And I can honestly remember cooking for her one time. It was far from anything Emeril, Rachel Ray, Paula Deen have whipped up. I made her a burger (in my defense it was a turkey burger so I was concerned for her health). But I'm getting off task. So she said I never cooked for her, I told her about the burger and she agreed. But later that night, I wondered why I never did cook for her. I think I have a reason why. I never considered her as someone I could call a girlfriend, at least not during that period in time. That's through no fault of her own. I had, and partially still do have to this day, preconceived notions of what a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is and what a strictly platonic relationship is. In my mind you cook for your girlfriend, you go places with her you wouldn't normally be caught dead in, you get her flowers just because, you leave cute notes in the drawer her unmentionables stay in. When you're friends, you don't cross into that region. And for the longest time I thought she and I had been just "friends". All that changed a few days ago when I had an epiphany. I started thinking about the year and some change we'd been "friends". I realized that everything we did together both physical and non-physical was beyond friendship. I realized she and I had a relationship (I've finally gotten over my phobia with that word and all it entails). Long story short I realized she was my girlfriend. Does it suck that I figured out all this after the fact? Yeah a little. Because if I would've carried things like we were a couple and not just "friends", some of the disagreements and misunderstandings we had could have been avoided. But Mom always says, "no test, no testimony". Now that I've finished testifying, I'm going to sit down and let the rest of the service continue. I gotta get out my singles for the offering.