Love Story, Part 3

I wrote Part 1 and Part 2 many moons ago. I know you have been waiting in suspense for THREE YEARS about how this story ends, right?

Brian and I spent the fall semester getting to know each other as friends. He was very busy working on an engineering degree and I was moderately busy memorizing plant names and working at the campus greenhouse.

During Christmas break my sisters and I hosted a Christmas party at my parents' house. I thought it was a great party, especially because so many of our friends decided to make a weekend of it. My parents still talk about their water bill from that fiesta. Sorry dad. My favorite thing about the party was that Brian and his sister Katie came to our house and were the last ones to leave.

In March our group went to Costa Rica for a spring break mission trip. It was beautiful. I loved Costa Rica: the climate, the flowers, the people. Brian said later he almost held my hand on that trip. But we kept it at a friend level. I didn't know he liked me and I tried to focus on the reason we were there.

Then a week or so after we arrived back home Brian called from where he was co-oping that semester and asked if I wanted to have lunch on Saturday since he was coming to Starkville that weekend. Ok, I said, sure. "I think you know what I want to talk about," he said. Hmmm. Vague and mysterious.

Saturday arrived. I was ready at noon, our appointed time, and waited for Brian to pick me up. 12:15, no Brian. 12:30, still no Brian. At 12:35 I picked up my phone to call him and it rang in my hand.
Brian said, "How's it going?" I said fine. "Where are you?" I lived with his sister so surely he knew... Oh! "You wanted me to meet you?" I asked, somewhat shocked. Why wasn't he picking me up? He offered to leave the restaurant and come get me but I couldn't sit there any longer. I got directions from Katie and left, finally arriving at the restaurant after he had been there an hour.

Don't worry, it gets a little more interesting.

Basically, Brian asked me if I wanted to start a relationship... in six months. He had plans to go back to Costa Rica for the summer and felt that it would be unfair to me to start a long-distance courtship. I felt very confused. I said Ok and we hugged and went our separate ways. I called my parents to tell them what he had said and they were not so happy. In fact my mother wanted to "scratch his eyeballs out." Hmmmm.

In my shyness I made the mistake of not talking to Brian for the rest of the weekend. He left for Mexico early Monday morning on a work trip and I suffered through one of the worst weeks of college life. (Isn't that dramatic?) My advisors (parents) were telling me that I didn't need to wait on Brian and should move on to someone else. My heart really liked Brian and wanted to be Mrs. Brian. I was living with mutual friends and Brian's sister and was trying very hard to hide my hurt. I went to see our Pastor and told him I was having a hard time. "Wait, you like Brian?" Yes, I do. Apparently I was doing such a good job of hiding my feelings that no one knew I WANTED to date him.

Brian got back from Mexico and called me. I was at home for Easter and practically threw the phone at my dad to try and straighten things out. Dad came outside to find me and handed me the phone. Brian asked if we could start over and I gladly said yes. So began our courtship.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my second baby girl is sleeping on my lap. I can hear the boys playing legos and the timer beeping to tell me lunch is ready.