Sometimes dating Lee Crane is the pits. It’s not as if Lee and I are totally exclusive, I made sure of that when things started to get a bit more involved. I mean, nothing will turn a guy off more than the feeling of being trapped.

But now, I’m not so sure I acted wisely. Lee seemed a little bit too   intrigued by that Greek girl, what was her name, Melina? And then there’s Carol Denning.  Oh, she was Jason Kemp’s girl , but Lee wasn’t blind, and she still looks at him with a bit too much interest for my liking.

I’m still ‘the Skipper’s girl’, as far as  I know  but it sure is getting hard  playing second fiddle to the damn boat!

Twice now, he’s forgotten our plans, once for a beachside picnic, the other just last night ,sometimes he uses the ‘sorry, duty called’ excuse and sometimes (when I ask him what it was that was more important than our date), he just grins and says ‘top secret’.

He also reneged on plans to help me with my volunteer job at the animal shelter as a ‘petter’, someone who pets the dogs and cats, to make them feel less abandoned and easier to adopt or be reintroduced into polite society. Maybe he was tired of listening to me about one of the sweet little lapdogs I would have adopted in a heartbeat if I was home more often.

Then there was the time I’d asked him over  to meet my parents, visiting from out of town, and he didn't show. Didn't even call! Maybe that was being a bit too pushy for him and he was  afraid I wanted that ring on my finger. Or maybe he just forgot. He does have a lot on his mind what with Nelson drafting him into more institute business. But seriously, he could have called and said the old man was keeping him too late. Angie did say there were a few nights that week when the boss called a few impromptu meetings that went long into the night. So I guess that's a legitimate excuse.

He’s promised to meet me tonight for dinner and dancing as soon as he gets away from a meeting with two boring looking men in black business suits I saw him with. They must use the same tailor.

I asked Chip who they were, but he didn’t know. I asked the Admiral, and he didn’t know and didn’t want to know. But he did tell me that if I had plans tonight, I might want to cancel them.

I went to Lee’s office in the hopes that I could interrupt and  he could tell me to my face that our plans had been postponed again. But he wasn’t there. I went to the sub and he wasn’t there either.

Believe me, I was not a happy camper when I got off work at 5 and there was still no sign of him, even though his car was still in his reserved parking spot.

Still, keeping my fingers crossed, I went ahead and got all prepped for a night out. The works, new dress, new shoes, matching handbag, earrings, necklace, puffy hair…I looked sensational.  Now all I had to do was wait.

7:30 came and went and  I began to get nervous. Still had a half hour to go to the promised pick up time. 7:45 came and went, and I found myself beginning to chew on my freshly painted nails. When the clock chimed 8, and he hadn't shown or called,  I was ready to throw in the towel.

By 8:15 I decided it was no use waiting, that I might as well change into something  more comfortable like my NIMR sweat suit and do a few yoga exercises while trying to think up something to say tomorrow to make him suffer.

By 9:00 I was munching on a fried egg sandwich, curlers in my hair when the doorbell rang. Damn nuisance the next door neighbors, always wanting to borrow something or other.

But there on the front porch was big box with a decorative polka dot bow on it. The box  moved and I jumped. Right into the arms of Lee (who’d been hiding in the bushes) who flashed me his ‘come and kiss me’ type smile, said ‘Sorry I’m late,’ bent down and took off the top.

The same sweet, fluffiest, cutest little puppy I’d fallen in love with  popped out. 

“Oh Lee, he’s adorable, but I can’t…I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to the little fellow to be alone all day… “

“Sure you can. We’ll arrange  for  pet sitters while you and fluffy here get acclimated to your schedule,” he told me, “There’s a new badge the boy scouts are  working on that’ll make it perfect. The leader will meet you tomorrow…they  have a rotation plan all set up…”

Talk about Lee getting out of the doghouse!

Later that evening I asked him about his meeting with the ‘men in black’. He just grinned at got back to the business of kissing me (among other things) while my new puppy licked our bare feet.

Dating Lee Crane? Heaven.