Chapter 1
Chapter 2
(remember, Luke in bold italics and me in regular text)
"The Question"
It had been 8 months since we met, you stalked me and I wished you were mine.
Oh brother, still with the stalking thing?
I had spent the summer in Moscow to go to summer school to ensure my graduation in five years. My fiancée had spent the summer showing me I could not live with her forever. My nature was to live up to my commitments, but when she suggested it may not be working between us, I was gone.
I’ve never been so thankful that someone was awful to you!
Within 6 hours I had moved out and moved on. My pizza buddy and I (Tyler) now call it ‘dodging the bullet’.
I had a summer of softball and beer, visualizing what life would be like working at a pizza place for the rest of my life. I was already enrolled in school, so I started the semester.
Within the first few days of the fall semester, I bumped into you. I was in a building I was never in and I think you had a class cancelled, or something. You purposefully looked at my hand for a ring and saw nothing. You asked what was going on and I replied, ‘it didn’t work out’. I saw the smile you tried to hide. We promised to talk soon.
You’re just not a details guy, are you? There are so many DETAILS you leave out! You’re right. I did have a class cancelled, just like I had a class cancelled when we first met …never mind God working in mysterious ways…God works in “cancelled classes” when it comes to us!
I was sitting in the study room of the Mechanical Engineering building, my home away from home. I was getting some work done, when in walked someone vaguely familiar. It was you…but not the you I remembered. You still looked handsome and kind…but you also had an edge you hadn’t had before. You looked tough in a way. You had a full goat-tee and a shiny bald head. But sill…those amazing green eyes and kind smile.
And the butterflies – those darn butterflies that kept me from speaking a coherent sentence around you were fluttering around like crazy.
The emails started flowing immediately. The phone calls followed. I desperately wanted to ask you out on a date. I had a feeling this was important, so I was trying to figure out what might be perfect for you. Not the ordinary dinner and movie, you deserved more.
Aww, you’re so sweet. I was sitting there thinking, “Ask me OUT already!” I remember one time when you had sort of skirted around the big question by asking me what I had planned for the weekend, but I had plans to go home that weekend because my mom was sick.
Oh, the emails! Good grief, I was sitting in front of the glowing orange screen listening to those haunting beeps and clicks and “ka-boing-ka-boing” noises that the excruciatingly slow dial-up internet connection made…what…15 times a day, hoping to have email from you? At least. I think that I saved all of those early emails, and printed them up before I closed my university email account at graduation. They’re sitting in a fire-safe in our garage right now J
I just remembered something! I remembered you making a comment about your beat up old green car. I sort of laughed it off as you exaggerating in the email, but then one day I was walking along the sidewalk to go to class and I saw (and heard and smelled) an awful green car chugging down the road. I sort of laughed to myself and thought, “Maybe that’s Luke in his old beater”. Sure as heck…that car drove by, and it was you driving! I about died laughing! You weren’t kidding! I thought it was strange to see you driving because you were sort of slumped forward hanging onto the wheel with both hands. I learned later that you eventually jammed a big plastic CD carrier behind the driver’s seat to keep the back up. Man, what a hunk of junk!
Hey, at least you know I wasn’t after you for your money!
Oh, and yes…I remember the first time we talked on the phone. I was sitting in my kitchen on Polk street. I answered that phone – remember the one with the GIANT numbers (like 3” by 3”) and the 12 foot cord? I held that phone to my ear and listened to your voice, and I was immediately aware of just how much I loved the sound of your voice.
Still do.
Okay, I’ll quit with the details now. Go on…
While I was thinking and planning, you were acting. I know the first time you ever asked a guy out was when you asked me out, but the second time was when you asked me out again. You called and said a bunch of people were headed to Cadillac Jack’s to country swing dance and was curious if me and any of my friends wanted to go.
I was more grunge than country, but really wanted to see you, so I convinced Tyler he needed to rustle up a date and we would go swingin’.
When we arrived, I found you at a table. You looked fantastic. It turns out by a ‘bunch’, you meant just you. I may have been singularly focused on you, but I never saw any of your friends there.
Oh no! You have it all wrong! You picked me up at my house….don’t you remember me walking into the room decked out in denim from head to toe?! Denim shirt tucked into denim (obviously) jeans…and my dancin’ boots all ready to boot-scoot-and-boogie the night away. HA!
I don’t remember picking you up, at all. (SHOCKED here!)
And I remember you…what was it? Something was different. I think you had shaved off your beard? Or maybe you had a hat on…I just remember expecting the bald and bearded Luke I’d seen in the study room, but you looked different. Hmmm..
The “bunch of friends” thing. Yeah – so much for a good plan. I really was expecting a bunch of people to show up that night. I’d heard them planning it and immediately thought “hey, this might be a good unintimidating first night out with Luke.” As it turned out, no one of my “friends” ever showed up…so it ended up looking like I’d made the whole story up just as an excuse to ask you out. It also looked like you invited Tyler along for no good reason. Arg. Embarrassing.
Tyler still insists that I invited him on our first date because I was nervous. I was, but that’s not why I invited him.
It turned out to be sort of fitting though – the buddy who came along on our first date was also one of your groomsmen in our wedding…who also barfed in your grandparents’ car the day after the wedding because he’d celebrated our wedding a bit too enthusiastically…and who we both love like a brother to this day.
That is a story by itself, and a really good one.
The date night was fantastic, but I think we should save details for the next installment, though.
I think you’re right. That evening was like nothing I’d ever experienced before, and definitely deserves it’s own post.
Do I talk this much more than you in real life, or just on paper? Crazy!
Are you calling yourself crazy, or just saying you talk more than me?
I talk more than you. AND I’m crazy. Crazy for YOUUUUUU!
Barf, like Tyler did at our wedding.
Aw, come on. Is the romance dead?
I am sure there is a romance post in the future. I know you love my romantic side. We will save that for later. I am sure you want the last word, like always. Any last word(s)?
In the words of a wise man…
No.
******************************************************
Mr. Romance days or weeks before we re-met:
.jpg)
