**For previous entry's about our love story, see below.**
I already shared with you that by the middle of August, after really only getting to know him for about two weeks, I was smitten with the man whom I now lovingly call Boss. (Yes, I even call him that in real life. It's our thang.) One Sunday night after service, I began talking to the preacher's wife about my growing feelings (she really was the cutest little lady that you ever did see, and she still is). She said it was no surprise to her, because she could see that I was glowing. After watching me struggle in a relationship for so long that was not working, she said she was glad to see me so happy. And then she said that she had good news :). Apparently that morning she and her husband had been talking with Boss and he had shared with her that he was interested in me! And he wanted to know what they thought about him one day pursuing me. Ahh! On the same day that I professed my feelings about Boss to someone else, he confessed his own growing feelings to the exact same person. To say that I squealed with delight would be an understatement. I was ecstatic! The preacher's wife and I squealed for several minutes (I might have even jumped up and down), before regaining composure and acting like the sophisticated ladies that we were.
The next night I went to a back to school cook out at a young couples house from church. The entire congregation was invited. I hoped that Boss was going to be there, but I had no way of knowing if he was working that night or not. Of course I bought a new shirt, just in case he showed, and it was a good thing that I did. (My poor daddy funded many new shirts during this season of my life.) Shortly after I arrived, Boss walked in. It was a fun night! Boss flirted with me (subtly, of course), and I giggled and rashed like a school girl. I was nothing if not smooth. If he did not love me before, he was sure to love me now. As the evening was coming to an end, "somehow" Boss and I wound up walking out to our cars at the exact same time, and surprisingly (or not surprising at all) no one else was out there. I think we had been set up :). He walked me to my car door and we awkwardly stood there, smiling at each other for several seconds (or was it minutes? With him, I found myself losing track of time), before he stumbled all over his words and asked me if maybe could he get my phone number? Of course I said yes, and he punched it into his cell phone before we both hurriedly got into our cars and drove our separate ways. Turns out, smooth we were not. But happy, we were. I had no idea when he was going to call, but I could not wait!
I did not have to wait long. The next afternoon my phone rang right as I was coming in the door from class. I grabbed it, breathless, and it was him. My knees went week. He said that he was calling to ask me to meet him at a park that was close to my house. I asked him when he wanted to meet. He said, how about in fifteen minutes? Wow! A man who did not play games! He knew what he wanted and he went for it. I liked that. I negotiated for thirty minutes (so I could change into a new shirt and brush my teeth), and then I headed to the park. He was already waiting there for me when I arrived.We both exited our cars and began to walk. We walked for several minutes before he said anything to me at all. But it was okay, because I liked his company. It did not feel like work to be with him. It was comfortable. Even though I was nervous and felt like I was going to throw up. In a good way.
Finally, he started talking, and he did not beat around the bush. He told me that he liked me, that he was interested in starting a relationship with me, but that he had to be very honest with me about something up front. I was not prepared for what he would share next. He told me that he was actually still married, but that he was in the final process of completing his divorce. Huh? Come again? Never in a million years was that what I thought he was going to say! My first question to him, does the preacher's wife know?? I knew there was no way that she would have tried to set me up with a married man if she had known! I was stunned when he told me that yes, she knew. Of course I tried to keep my cool while he was talking, but my mind was reeling, so I just listened.
He told me that they had married young. He was only twenty and she eighteen. He told me that she had not been a Christian when they had gotten married, and that he had been advised not to marry her, but that he had done it anyway. He said that they had been happy for the first two years. She had become a Christian, and they had been happy. But then she started staying out later, or not coming home at all. And he soon found out that she was cheating on him. That she was drinking and using drugs. That she had not only abandoned her new love of Christ, but that she had also abandoned him and their marriage vows. His heart was broken. Since college was coming to a close for him, he decided to accept a job offer in Arizona, and she agreed to come along. He wanted to leave everything behind and start over in their marriage. He was hopeful, he said. But it was not meant to be. Life in Arizona was no different with her. She was still cheating. Still doing drugs. It was a new crowd, but she was still acting like the person she had become back in Ohio. He was crushed.
Soon Boss accepted a new job with Champs Sports. I will forever be grateful that he made that decision, because that is how he landed himself in College Station, Texas, of all places. He took over the store there. His wife followed him, mainly because she had no money without him, but it was clear that their marriage was over. And he began the process of starting the divorce. He knew that God hated divorce, and he felt ashamed, but he also knew that it was in fact a scriptural divorce, and he hoped that he would one day get a second chance at having a godly marriage.He said he had never felt more alone in his life. This was the dark season that he had been going through. This was what he had been wrestling with God about. Hers was the picture that he had used to carry in his Bible. It all made sense to me now, and my heart broke for him. I instantly knew that I wanted to be the one that would make him smile again. I wanted to be the one that made him take a second chance on love.
I thanked him for being brave enough to share his story with me. He asked me if I was still interested, and told me that he understood if I wasn't. I told him I was. But we both agreed that we would not take things any further until his divorce was finalized, and we had no idea how long that would take. Sometimes those things drug on forever, he said. But we agreed to wait, because even though his marriage had been over for a year, and even though they had not lived together for longer, he was still technically married. So he still belonged to someone else. We did go to dinner together that night, the last thing that we agreed we would do alone, before he was free to date once again. Any other time that we spent together would be in a group setting. When I left the restaurant that night my heart was a bit heavy. I knew in my heart that he was the one for me. My Mr. Right, the one that I had been waiting for, and now I was going to have to wait even longer.
To Be Continued.
