-Thou shalt not touch
-Thou shalt not look (ie. cow eyes)
-Thou shalt not speak of marriage
-Thou shalt not relive thy dates to thy roommates for hours
-Thou shalt not make off hand remarks about the loneliness of singleness
-Thou shalt not get googly-eyed over texts
-Thou shalt not suck face within the confines of 314
-Just get off the beanbag altogether!
-Don't burn your dang food!
-Stop cooking with your boyfriend. You gross me out.
We had personal experience with roommates who did these things, obviously. We were happy being single, living it up, and being ourselves.
I was definitely one to talk (what with my short courtship and all)... and where is this friend, you may ask? She's married. Got married about 6 months ago.
Now... don't get me wrong... we weren't haters ALL the time. We went on dates, flirted with guys, and did our part in church of sitting boy girl. But we felt like we had better things to do, like play endless hours of Just Dance or Glee Karaoke.
So where does my story begin? Well...
Once Upon A Time...
A friend talked me into getting this little iPhone app called Tinder. That's right, our story starts with Tinder. It took me weeks to get the guts to use it. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a dating app. You get shown a picture of your gender choosing and a short profile of them, likes and dislikes. Then you decide if you like them or not. If you both happen to like each other's pictures, the app then lets you chat with each other. The rest is up to you.
I went on many dates from this app, but nothing was promising. My roommates accused me of having "fear of a functional relationship", and I didn't deny it. I didn't really want to be exclusive with anyone. I was through with getting hurt.
Well one day in July I see a picture. It's this red headed guy with goalie gloves on. He looked full of energy and although I'd never been into red heads, I thought maybe he'd be entertaining. In comes Reed. We started talking and he mentioned taking me to RSL games, and Jazz games, and all I thought was- 'save your money, boy, I don't stick around long.' Well before we actually met in person, we spent 3 hours and 40 minutes facetiming on our phones (it's like Skype for iPhones). Reed took me out on Saturday, August 2nd. Before our date I made a wish in the fountain at the mall... just a simple wish, hoping this date would go well.
Reed took me to Red Robin, and after dinner Reed made a similar wish in the fountain and we continued our date. I have this rule that first dates shouldn't go longer than 2 hours. Then if I don't like the guy, I can get our quickly and never talk to him again. Well for some reason, this tall, quirky, red headed guy intrigued me. I wanted to spend more time with him. Our date lasted about 7 hours.
We proceeded to go out on a date every day over the course of the next week.
Part of me wanted to run away because I was still scared of commitment. I had 2 awesome friends who basically said "if you're only running because you're scared, then you're an idiot". So I stayed. I love those friends for saying that!
Before Reed and I became official, we had to have that super awkward conversation. You know, the one where one of us wants to know what the heck this is... Yeah...
So I get this text from a friend saying "I stopped by your apartment but you weren't there. I'll come by another day."
me: "oh, I'm with Reed at my parent's house"
friend: "Who is Reed?"
Me to Reed: "Reed is my... Reed is my...."
Reed: "Reed is your what?"
Me to Reed: "Reed is mine?"
Reed: "yes"
me to friend: "Reed is mine"
Friend: "Your what?"
Me to Reed: "Reed is my...."
Finally Reed spits out: "Do you wanna say boyfriend?"
Me to Reed (hesitating): "...yes....?"
Reed: "Okay, say it."
We became actually official that night in the rain.
...This is where our love story begins...
