Not just any guy

I'm in New York. I'm having a great time on my company's dollar, and while I'm enjoying the city (and the wine! and the food!) I'm more excited about tomorrow than anything else. Tomorrow I am seeing someone who is very special to me. I haven't seen him since I was here last year and I'm just thrilled that he can make it into the city to see me.

Nope, he's not anyone I'm dating. He's not a romantic interest in the least. Not an ex-boyfriend or business friend.

He's Josh. One of my closest and dearest friends from college.

Josh and I were best friends instantly. Like any good story, I can remember the night we met. We were both working part time at this call center at ASU our first year there. He was corny and raunchy and completely inappropriate. His hair was dyed pseudo blonde and it didn't suit his tan skin and skinny face. He made passes at me and within weeks I put an end to it. "Cut that shit out! I won't be friends with you if you keep up that crap."

And he did cut it out. And we just became the best of friends. He and I started hanging out all of the time. We'd go to see plays together and I went to watch him perform in several skits. That year, he was the only guy my overly protective boyfriend didn't mind me hanging out with. I brought him home to my parents' house several times for dinner. I helped him move. We'd find each other on campus among the crowds of people and just give each other a hug and then bitch to each other about our day. We would stroll in silence with coffee in hand, complete understanding of the others' mood.

As the years went on in college, some friends dropped in and out of my life but Josh stayed. The night I broke up with my boyfriend of nearly four years, it was Josh who I called first and foremost, before anyone else.

"It's over," I started sobbing into the phone.

"Hey, Jo. You want to come over? Sure, that's cool."

"No, it's over."

"Sure! Come over!"

"No, Josh!" I started laughing through my tears, in pure exasperation. "It's OVER. O-V-E-R. I broke up with him."

And then we both just started laughing so hard on the phone that we couldn't speak. To this day, we still joke about it.

We've spent several Valentine's Days and New Year's Eves together. He's been my surrogate boyfriend so many times I've lost count. I remember one Valentine's Day he came over to my apartment and I dyed his hair in my sink, of all things to do! We dyed it black and he dirtied all of my towels. And then we went out to dinner, just the two of us, and then to see a romantic comedy.

Josh might as well be a girlfriend to me. I would call him moaning about cramps and he'd bring me food. I once went bra shopping with him. He'd spend the night at my parents' house after dinner parties and would even put up with the dog occassionally humping his leg (sorry, Walter!).

After college he moved to Scottsdale, within a mile of me and it was often that I'd find him at our local sports bar. I'd meet him for a beer on a random week night and we'd eat greasy food and catch up on life. Things were just that simple.

He moved to Jersey just a month after I moved to Los Angeles. We don't talk nearly as often. We certainly hardly ever see each other. But we send each other random emails and texts of adoration.

"Josh, I miss you!"

"Jo, I miss you more than Britney Spears misses her hair."

And that's my Josh.

Tomorrow at 1:00 I'll be done with my business meetings. I won't check my email. I won't take phone calls. I'll be hanging with Josh.