"What happened to me??"

As per our fast and healthy lifestyle, there is one escape clause -- the "special occasion" clause -- to the no drinking during the week rule. In the last seven weeks, it's only been invoked three or four times, one of which was to go to the staff dinner for the magazine I freelance for. However Ms. K and I invoked the clause to attend Brooklyn Uncorked, a wine tasting of Long Island wines, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. But the other reason for the special occasion is because Ms. K and I were enjoying a rare weeknight date.

I love dates with Ms. K. We go out, have a nice diner at restaurants like Applewood and Rosewater, maybe drink a bottle of prosecco, and tell each other a thousand times how pretty each other is. During the tasting I remember leaning close into her and noticing that her scent was instantly evocative of when we first started dating two years ago. It was a mixture of Chanel, cigarettes, and alcohol and I realize this might not be the most appealing mixture of scents, but I assure you that the pleasure center of my brain lights up whenever I smell it and it drives me crazy. Equally there is a perfume that I wear during the summer months that causes Ms. K to bury her nose into the crook of my neck and breathe deeply.

"Who'd ever thought I'd like being in a monogamous relationship," she later remarked over dinner and elderflower martinis at Ici. There was a time in the recent past when Ms. K lived the life of a confirmed bachelor. "What happened to me??"

"You met a nice girl," I replied with a smirk. "That's what happened."