Soft Boy

A surprise date

   I'm absentmindedly scrolling through instagram when I lose myself in thought. I love the cglre community. I love that its a safe space for everyone, I love that I've met so many little friends through the online community. I love the diversity. But being a regressor without a caregiver feels lonely sometimes. You see all these cute cglre couples online that you start to get a little heartsick. The phone in my hand buzzes and snaps me out of my thoughts. My friend Aaron is calling me. I pick up the phone and say hello.
   "I hooked you up!" he says excitedly. I sigh.
   "What do you mean?" I ask.
   "I found you the perfect person!" he says. Oh no. He says this pretty much every week. He always finds the "perfect girl" and I always believe him. Then I start talking to this person and there's just no spark. Not that its his fault, but after awhile you just get tired of trying.
   "Oh did you now? What's she like?" I say curiously.
   "Her name is Tye. She's 19 and just moved to the area. Last week I sparked up a conversation with her and invited her to dinner with me and babe. Naturally I didn't cover up all traces of little in the apartment and when she came in my bottle was sitting on the dining room table," he paused for a minute and I chuckled. Aaron had never been one to hide his regression. I understand, you live so long in hiding eventually you just get sick of it. At this point he puts very minimal effort into hiding his tracks.
   "She giggled when she saw it and pointed out the fact that we obviously don't have any kids. We all sat down to eat and we talked to her about regression and caregivers and little space and all that. We even talked about little space gear and diapers and everything. She was super interested and said she wants to pursue learning about caregivers and even being one!" Aaron was talking so fast I could barely keep track of him. This was a pretty wild story.
   "That's pretty crazy," I say still not putting too much hope into this. There's a lot for a person to learn about the community and being a caregiver. No one should rush into a relationship right away.
   "So today I passed her your little instagram, she really wants to talk to a little," I hear the hope in his voice. I figured he would.
   "Well if you like her, I'll give her a shot," I say. Aaron cheers into the phone.
   "Awesome! I can't wait for you to just fall head over heels in love!"
   "Woah slow your role buddy. I just wanna talk to her first." When we hang up the phone I check my direct message right away. I see the message request and sure enough, its Tye. She typed out a message basically saying what Aaron said. Adding at the end that she has some questions that she wants to ask me. I respond saying that I'd love to talk to her and that I'm pretty open to most questions she would have.
   I press send and go to lurk her page. She's very pretty. I find her physically attractive. She looks to be around the same height as me. She's on the heavier side, her instagram bio says she's Hmong, and she has the brightest smile and sparky brown eyes. She looks like the type to love adventure and trying new things. The type to have insecurities but not let them drag her down. A message from her pops in.
   "Awesome! We should totally hang out tonight! Wanna meet at Cafe Cravings?" she asks excitedly. I knew where it was. Its a cute cafe in the middle of town. A nice casual place but also a place we could get some privacy. We plan on meeting in an hour so I quickly pull myself together. I pull out some jeans and a flannel. That should be appropriate. I comb through my curly black hair. I look decent. Cute. I hop in my car and drive to meet Tye.
   The closer I get the more nervous I become. I'm the second little she's ever encountered. I wonder if she looked through my instagram. I thought of all the regression themed posts. Littlespace videos, paci pics, little outfits. I feel shy. I tried to focus on something else. When I pulled into the parking lot I started to get butterflies like mad! I took a deep breath and went inside. I scanned the area and saw Tye sitting in a booth near the back. I panicked a bit. I was early so she must've shown up even earlier. I hope she wasn't waiting too long. I walked to the booth and sat down across from her.
   "Hey Tye!" I say excitedly. Her eyes light up. She's wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans and a grey sweater. A simple look that looked so comfy.
   "Hey Leo! So glad you could make it!" she smiles and shakes my hand. She has such a bubbly personality. I start to relax. This is gonna be good. I'm gonna make a new friend. The waiter comes to ask us what drinks we want. She orders a diet coke and I get a lemonade. As I order I realized what a little-centric answer that was.
   "So how did you discover age regression?" she asks me.
   "Well when I was 15 I met Aaron who introduced me to it all. It was very similar to habits I already had. Like I owned coloring books and stuffed animals even though I was constantly told I was too old. So I started learning from Aaron and going online. When the cglre community popped up I just knew that was where I belonged," Tye listened to every word. You could tell she really cared. The waiter brought our drinks and asked what we would like to eat. We both looked at our unopened menus. We got so caught up talking we never even thought about eating.
   "I think we're gonna need more time," Tye says to him. The waiter walks off and we laugh.
   "Guess we should open these," I say reaching for my menu. I scan mine and talk to Tye about what seems good. She gets lasagna and I get the chicken tenders. After the waiter takes our orders she's ready to ask more questions.
   "So what's your little age range?"
   "0-5 but I tend to stay around 1," I expect to see some shock on her face. Younger ages tend to surprise the newcomers. I'm pleasantly surprised when I don't get the expected reaction.
   "Awe that's so cute! What gear helps you regress?" she asks.
   "I use paci's, stuffies, onesies, diapers, coloring books, rattles, and I watch a lot of kids shows and movies," I say cautiously. I know diapers can be a touchy subject. She still doesn't seem too shaken. In fact I think she senses my nervousness. She gives me a warm smile. I blush a little.
   "So what does big Leo do? What are his hobbies and interests?" she asks. The question catches me off guard. Not many people who are new to little me pay too much attention to big me.
   "Right now I'm into my first year of getting my two year associates degree in human services. I'm not sure what's gonna happen after I'm done with that though. I like writing and photography," I say excitedly. The waiter comes with our food and we chow down.
    Tye tells me what she likes to paint and draw. She has a job giving tours at a local art museum that she really likes and also is an interpretor. She likes soft indie music and went through an emo phase in middle school. Coincidentally I did too so we talked about that. She also really likes chess and puzzles.
   Before we know it, the food is gone and the cafe is closing. I sigh not wanting to leave. I wanted to talk longer. I walked Tye to her car and said goodnight. I drove home and immediately got into bed. My mind filled with thoughts of Tye until I dozed off.