Early January plans finally unfolded in March. Only late. And different.

The setting had changed to my home turf and it was a couple of months after the fact. Cocktails instead of coffee. And, blessedly, no reference to Narnia.

I have fun, it's good to see him. I hope to again at some point, sooner rather than later. But I realize that all it took to rid myself of years' (embarrassed as I am to admit it) worth of a crush was an hour and a vodka cranberry.

And I think the outcome would have been the same with a latte months ago.

Better late than never?

I found myself bounding up a deserted cobblestone street, gracing the sparkling gold street lights (remnants of the holiday season, so it works) with a "Napoleon" reprise. Although, thinking of it now, perhaps I should have belted out "Good, Bad, Ugly" instead.

'Cause baby, I was feeling awfully fancy free.

I get home and write into a notebook before I turn off the light and drift off to sleep with a smile:

You can ask how I am. How work has been. To whom I've been listening. The next reason I'm going to be making the ever-so-frequent trip to Boston. What has been new and exciting in my life.

If you ask, I might just wind up believing that you care about the response I give. I might just feel inclined to share with you, and I might just hope you provide responses to the inquiries I plan to make.

But you decide to go with "How are things?"

And I realize there is no decent answer I can give, because well, busy, frustrated, groovy or fine don't give you any sense of where I am. I realize you either don't care about whatever I decide to include in my response, or you don't know how to ask me anything better or more specific. You might think that that kind of question is going to make me feel special that you asked anything of me at all - and, well, that's not so much the case.

My response is friendly, but vague. I don't follow through with my inquiries.

Because that's the moment I realized that this crush I've had for years has just ended. As much as it can. I mean, there's a Laugh and a Grin and a Smirk named after you. And you - or at least, the crush on you - has become kind of engrained in me.

But you have one opportunity to ask about me, and you decide to go with "How are things?"

I realize that I'm suddenly much, much better, so much that I almost want to thank you...