On September 10, 2002, Boss and I went on our very first date. For the life of me, I cannot remember what either of us wore (odd, seeing as I remember so many other random details from this time in our lives). I do remember though, that my roommate curled my hair for me and that I was incredibly nervous and rashy. Spending time with Boss made me want to throw up. In a good way. But I was also excited and in love. For some reason that I cannot explain, I just knew that I was about to go on a date with the one that God had been preparing just for me. And that is an incredible feeling.
Boss was the perfect gentleman on our date. Who am I kidding? Even now, over eight years later, he still remains a gentleman. He picked me up right on time, he opened the car door for me every time I got in or out, and on the passenger seat of his car he had placed a single long stemmed yellow rose. He took me to Johnny Carrino's for dinner and we both ordered fettuccine alfredo. Neither of us ate more than a few bites :).
After dinner we stopped at the same park that we had met at several weeks before where he had shared his heart with me. But this time it was different. We were together. Beginning our lives together, and we both knew it. We both felt it. He grabbed my hand as we started walking, and my heart began to beat a little bit faster. His hand was strong and warm, and I did not want him to let go. I remember thinking that night that I wanted to hold his hand for the rest of my life.
After our walk through the park we headed back to my house and watched The Rookie. Well, the movie was on, but I didn't really watch it:). My eyes were fixed on the screen throughout the entire film, but I was not watching it. I was too busy wondering about what Boss was thinking. Did he like me as much as I liked him? Was my hand sweating too much as he held it in his? Was he bored? Was he going to kiss me for the first time tonight? Did my breath stink? These thoughts pounded my brain and even though I knew that he would be leaving once the movie ended, I was so glad when it was finally over! My brain could not take much more thinking. At the end of our date I walked Boss to the door, and he informed me that he was going to kiss me goodnight. He did. And it was wonderful. And then I went to the bathroom and threw up, because nothing says love like vomit :).
For the entire next month, Boss and I hung out together every single moment that he was not working. It is safe to say that my grades seriously began to suffer that semester once Boss entered my life. I went from studying sociology, to studying him. He was a much more fascinating subject and I wanted to learn everything that I could about him. I wanted to pass every single test. He made my heart happy and being with him was the only place that I wanted to be. We would go out to eat, walk at our park, hang out with our friends, take drives through the country, eat frozen custard, and fall more in love with each passing day. Boss often brought me gifts when he would pick me up for our dates, just little things to let me know that he had been thinking of me throughout his day, and he would flood my inbox with emails. I remember thinking... AGH! I HAVE A BOYFRIEND! ONE I CAN CALL ANYTIME THAT I WANT! ONE THAT WANTS TO BE WITH ME AND SAYS SO! I don't believe that my face was ever without a smile during our first month together.
Sometime towards the end of the month, I took Boss down to meet my family. My Aunt Connie was having a birthday party for the September birthdays at her house and Boss offered to drive me there and go with me. We got lost on the hour drive to her home, but instead of being irritated with me for not writing down the directions like he had suggested :), he simply said he did not care how long it took us to get there as long as we were together (I might still like to remind him of this when we get lost or things take longer than we anticipated in our day to day life now).Needless to say, my family loved Boss, just like I knew they would. What's not to love?
Things were sailing along in our world and everything was going great. I couldn't remember ever feeling happier in my life. And then, after our one month anniversary, he told me that he wanted me to fly to Ohio with him to meet his family.
Oh sure, I thought. He had met my family. It only made sense that I meet his in the coming months.
So, when do you want to go to Ohio, I asked him. In January? After the holidays? That sounded like a reasonable time frame to me.
But his answer was different than I had expected. He looked me in the eye and asked, Are you free next week? I am pretty sure that I choked on my spit. This, my friends, was getting serious.
To Be Continued.
P.S. Remember that little detail about Boss moving to Austin at the end of September? Yeah, it never happened :). And that had nothing to do with him choosing to stay for me. The day he was to fax over his new lease agreement, he got a call from Corporate saying that the transfer was not going to happen and that at this time he was to stay put. A mere coincidence? I think not :).
