Since the Audi dealership was on the way to BMW, it was my AP's turn to go first. Besides, she was better than me at acting "as if" - I had seen her do it before - so I needed to see how things were done.
I parked my car in the adjacent lot and we walked up to the Audi showroom. I had my camera up the left sleeve of my jacket ready to capture an "as if" snapshot at a moment's notice.
When the salesman approached us, I watched in awe as my normally soft-spoken AP pulled off an Oscar-worthy performance, as she (without so much as batting an eyelash) asked the friendly salesman if he had an Audi "cab" she could look at somewhere on the premises.
"Someone just took it out for a test drive. They should be back in about twenty minutes if you care to do the same."
"That would be nice", she said.
Please God, no.I thought.
It is my firm belief that at that moment, the Gods heard me and set up a traffic jam to prevent such an occurrence as this vehicle never made it back in time before we left.
Once we were actually in the showroom, I bantered far too much with the salesman (a transparent ploy to hide my nervousness) as my AP gracefully climbed behind the wheel of a vehicle that vastly exceeded my yearly earnings and asked me to take a photo of her from every angle.
Every angle???All I could think was they would suspect we were setting things up for a B & E Hollywood style like bank robbers do with hidden cameras before a heist.
But, never to cower before a challenge, I proceeded to tell the salesman an 'insider's' tidbit - "She just wants to see how she looks in it before she buys. She thinks black washes her out - she's an 'autumn'" and looked at him with that 'you know' to emphasize that innate fashion sense every woman is born with.
Much to my relief, it worked. We left shortly thereafter but not before my AP promised the salesman she would be in touch by Tuesday if she was interested to discuss her order.
Nice touch.
Now it was my turn.
As we made the trek to BMW, as good as I felt and as valuable as I found this exercise to be, there was NO WAY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH I could legitimately pretend I was buying a Beamer.
The best I could muster was "Just looking". And on that note, I wasn't budging.
I had to work my way up to the extreme role-playing mode until such a time as the thought that God might smote me down for such folly was completely eradicated from my mind.
The way I saw it, guilt was bound to defeat the prupose of this exercise. Better to start small, then go big over time. I was after all, only in the process of building up to the belief that I was worth it. On many levels, my AP was already there.
So we compromised.
I found my chosen convertible BMW cabriolet in the parking lot and meekly asked my AP if she could take my picture leaning against it so we could call it a day and go for beer n' Nachos. I was starving.
NO
So we entered the showroom guided by a devilishly handsome salesman with a dry sense of humor who knew the ins and outs of the BMW body the way bunnies do the Playboy Mansion. He then explained that "BMW owners are a fun, active lot, who seem to enjoy life more than most".
That's me! This is good! I could feel my comfort level rising. Keep talkin'.
And that's when I saw it:
the 2010 BMW 6 series Cabriolet in black.
Her top was down and she was calling me.
We stepped towards the car and suddenly the grin on my face was unmistakeable. As the salesman went to his office to fetch the brochure my AP asked him to get for me, she turned to me and said:
"Get in."
With some trepidation, I climbed into the driver's seat cognizant of the fact that I was only there for the experience and looked around me at all the gadgets wondering if it would ever feel the way it did for my AP back at Audi.
Slowly, I realized - She was beautiful.
Before I knew it, I had run my finger across the real wood finishing, gently caressed the heated steering wheel with awe, and stroked the leather seats that I was now convinced were mine.
Oh yeah babi. I was all over it.
By the time the salesman had returned with my glossy brochure, my AP had taken four shots of me in the car from various angles. But I was in my own little world.
As the salesman opened the car door and smiled down at me, there was only one thing on my mind. I turned to him and said:
"Does it come in white?"
I was hooked.
And I finally accepted that I was having fun. I felt like a kid in a candy store.
Suddenly it was easy to let the salesman talk about all the features of each car and tell me in great detail about the craftsmanship and engineering genius of BMW and the color combinations available in each series, because I was genuinely interested in a way that exceeded mere curiosity.
I was relegating this information to memory for future use. For my future self. And I was as giddy as a school girl experiencing the joy of her first crush.
Yes indeed. In that moment, I OWNED my future self. And it felt great.
By the end of our little adventure, I was sold on a white, Series 6 BMW Convertible Cabriolet with a tan top and tan interior. Or "at the very least", I told my new 'friend', "I'm going to lease one some day soon." and meant it.
Piece o' cake.
Next - Celebrating the half-way point - Where do we go from here.
