Can our funny first-date story stop being my introduction?
Funny'Here comes the coffee attacker,' my partner said as I joined his friends for dinner. Someone moved their cup away. Everybody laughed, including me, because explaining the phrase seemed more awkward than letting it pass.
On our first date, I reached for a sugar packet and knocked over a small coffee. Some landed on his cuff. I apologised, he dabbed it with a napkin, and we ended up talking for another two hours. It's a good little story about a date surviving a clumsy start.
In his dinner-party version, I 'launched a cappuccino' at him and he knew immediately that I was trouble. He does a slow-motion reenactment. The first few times, I added a sound effect. After a year, I have heard it at birthday drinks, a picnic and three introductions to people I'd never met. Last night, I barely got to say what my name was before the cup-moving routine began.
He says it's our story and that my additions made it funnier. That's true. I'm now tired of arriving as the punchline, but I don't want to pretend I never enjoyed it. How do I ask him to save the story for occasional use and tell the actual spill version?