My Second Life Romance – Part 1

I’ve wanted to write about Second Life romance for a long time.

In fact, I’ve written about it in the past, even made a few observations, but I want to write something very personal. I want to talk about strong emotions. I want to talk about Love. I’m not sure I’ll talk about sex, but maybe. This will be a journey of discovery and revelation. We’ll just have to see where this leads, perhaps a happy ending, I just don’t know yet. I know this though, there will be three parts to this story:

1) He Made Me Feel Like Dancin’
2) He Filled My Life With Hope
3) Protecting Your Heart

I’ll tell you many personal things, but I won’t reveal the loves of my second life. So, to the guys from my past:  you can relax. I’ve decided to create a composite character to represent the man who represents all the wonderful things about Second Life romance. /me smiles

1) He Made Me Feel Like Dancin’
My Zen gardens were a source of joy for most of my second life. I’d spent a great deal of time in my gardens working to define my sense of beauty, and learning how to represent that beauty in a Second Life landscape. In 2008, I became an apprentice geisha at Yoshiwara Okiya but by 2009 I’d retired from that role. Still, I frequently played my role of retired geisha at my garden adjacent to the Little Yoshiwara.

I enjoyed being “in character” as I  worked in the garden, because frequently guests seem to fall from the sky every day. I created the garden for people to enjoy, and meeting new people was a great benefit. And it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn many men in my life were somehow connected to my gardens. However, I didn’t meet everyone who visited the gardens, there was one guest I might never have met without a little luck. Let’s call him Nathan.

He had come to my garden on several occasions when I wasn’t there. And I’m not sure we’d have ever met, if not for one night when he came to a blues nightclub where I was hosting (it might seem incongruous, but I also played the role of hostess). In fact, we still might not have met if I wasn’t a habitual profile surfer.

Nathan’s profile indicated he was a member of the Little Yoshiwara group. So that was a big “Wow” and seeing as I wasn’t anybody’s baby at the time, this kinda got caught my interest. Well, yeah, he was handsome too; there was that. Anyway, as the evening moved along, I exchanged some banter and flirtations with him and that went well.

In fact, in open chat it was clear we were enjoying each other’s give and take, but when my hosting gig ended and I was ready to head home, Nathan did something extraordinary*, he actually asked me to dance.

*[Ok, asking a girl to dance may seem to be a logical thing to do, but not in SL. Maybe SL women reading this post are accustomed to being asked to dance, but I’m not. In fact, I’ve rarely been asked to dance. I’ll take up this topic in the future, but part of my problem is I don’t initiate conversations with guys I don’t know. I’ve come to recognize that most SL guys expect women to start conversations, but I just can’t. So, when Nathan asked me to dance it was a big deal to me.]

Obviously, I eagerly accepted his invitation and we danced, and continued our chat in IM. Then again he surprised me, he asked if we could voice chat. Wow again! I know a lot of peeps dislike SL voice chat but I really enjoy it, so I said yeah.

I plugged in my headset and spoke in my sexiest (more cute than sexy I guess) voice, “Testing, testing, testing…” until I heard him respond with a “Wha-chu-doin?” Nathan was funny and his voice was easy-going, friendly, and he spoke with just a touch of a Canadian accent. Eh? /me giggles. His voice was so engaging and I swear you could hear him smiling.

He and I talked about everything. But after awhile he turned conversation to my Zen gardens. He really surprised me when he told me he’d been there on several occasions. You may thinking he was tracking me, but I’ve met many people this way, especially at the Junkyard. People seem to remember my name and when they come across me they let me know they’ve been to the gardens.

Anyway, after the topic came up, we decided to go visit. We strolled the garden for awhile and he even told me about changes I’d made since his last visit. And eventually we made our way to my Harvest Moon Cafe.

The Cafe was a great place for us to continue our chat. He was a guy who seemed to have an endless stream of ideas and jokes and just stuff to talk about. It wasn’t a romantic kind of chat. There wasn’t any sexaul overtone. The overtone was just enjoying one another. We played around a little, but there was no groping going on.

Out of nowhere, this was a nights I might never experience again in my entire second life.

Nathan created happiness. There was nothing deep happening. It was just two people who instinctively understood each other. And we danced, even some very romantic dances. And I was feeling very comfortable in his arms, loved it in fact. And there was not pressure to do or say anything. We danced and danced, and talked and talked. I knew this guy even though I didn’t really know him, and he knew me and we both knew this.

In fact, we were having a grand old  time time. Then almost out of nowhere, and before we realized what had happened, we were in the wee hours of morning. We were both getting hoarse and tired and silly. When we collected our wits, we realized we’d been talking for hours and hours.

So, we finally acknowledged it was bedtime. But I would have stayed with him forever if he’d wanted, but fortunately he had to work in the morning.

We didn’t make a date to meet again. We almost forgot to exchange Friendship. And finally we said our goodnights.

There’s isn’t really much more I can say about that night. When I awoke the next morning, the first thing I remembered was that I couldn’t remember much about we chatted about, I just knew I enjoyed it. How could that even happen? But what I truly remember is, he made me feel like dancin’.

Coming soon – part 2