"Do you want to feel my muscles?" Love Story Part 2

I was a good girl. A Good girl who could lean slightly toward self righteousness. This may have been part of my problem in finding my longed for husband. I was looking for a man who walked on water yet if I was self reflective at all I would have realized that I was barely treading water myself. When I look back, the day I met my husband was the beginning of a fresh new outlook that created major change in me.

I was a teacher at the Missionary Training Center. It was a great part time job while working on my degree. I had noticed another teacher there who physically fit my ideal. I watched him from afar and hoped one day I would get the chance to get to know him. He was serious, looked ambitious, tall, dark hair, handsome, and seemed very grounded in all things I deemed important.

But, thank heaven, fate had different plans for me.

One November day I went to work and everything was different. All the classes were switched around so I wasn't working with my usual group of missionaries. I was assigned to work with a very rambunctious group of 19 year olds. It was going along smoothly until one of them suddenly piped up....."Hey, Sister Hartley, are you married?" "No, I am not" I coldly replied. Class time was not the place to be discussing my marital status and I tried to shut them down with my tone. Then all of a sudden 4 or 5 of them jumped up and in absolute heartfelt delight yelled........"We know your husband!!". "What are you talking about" I said "I just told you, I am not married". "Yeah but we know who you are going to marry and he is awesome!!!!, he is our teacher and you are totally going to marry him". With that they all just ran out of the room. This was a huge no no to leave the room during class time. Everything was out of control and I was freaking out. They ran off to who knows where leaving me and 4 other missionaries alone. I was furious!! After what seemed like forever but was probably 4 or 5 min, they came back dragging their teacher behind them. Actually, they were literally carrying him and he was laughing his head off.

Sunshine is the only way to describe him. He had white blond hair and looked like he had spent most of his days surfing on a California beach. His eyes were clear ocean blue, his smile was bigger than the room and I could tell by his unabashed laughter as they dragged him in that laughing was what he did best. I could also tell, even though he was being taken against his will, that these missionaries loved him and the rapport and connection between them was deeper than I had seen with any of the other teachers and their students. There was a brotherly bond.

"Elder Bray, this is Sister Hartley. Sister Hartley, this is Elder Bray" they breathlessly said as they set him down. "Sister Hartley, meet your husband" they said to me and then turned to him and said "Elder Bray, go ahead, she's going to be your wife so, you better ask her out".

AWKWARD, to say the least!! I couldn't believe this was happening to me, I wanted to die. Luckily he was a little more composed than I was and just calmly laughed it off and told them to get back to work and stop thinking about girls, dating and marriage. He smiled at me, turned and headed back to his class. I tried to get back to work but those missionaries just kept gushing about Elder Bray and how amazing he is. Everything I did to try and get them back to business would just be one more invitation to tell me another great thing about their teacher and, as they put it, my future husband.

Class finally ended I headed to the teachers lounge to fill out my reports. I turned the corner and to my horror, there was Mr. Sunshine sitting on the table smiling and talking to another teacher. I wanted to crawl under it. I smiled awkwardly as I went to pass him and then to my shock, out of the blue, he grabbed me, put me in sort of a choke hold, and rustled up my hair (a noogie). WHO DOES THAT!! I was desperately trying to keep some dignity and composure in another extremely awkward situation. I was a strait laced girl looking for a serious boy and this surfer dude was freaking me out!! I had no words and was trying to act somewhat normal in a very bizarre situation. He looked me straight in the eyes and just started to laugh. I said something stupid like "ha ha those crazy missionaries", got out of his grasp and quickly headed off to fill out my reports. Who was this guy and why was he not obeying any social norms?

I took my time hoping he would leave so as to not have to endure another grabbing incident but he just kept laughing and talking. I couldn't quite tell, but it kinda seemed like he was waiting for me......sure enough as I finally got up to walk out he jumped off the table and stepped in line with me, I guess we were walking out together?

He had such an easy manner about him and very quickly all the awkwardness just melted away. Talking to him was as easy as breathing and within minutes we were laughing about the classroom incident like old friends. I was completely at ease.......that was until, halfway to the parking lot, out of the blue, he said "Hey, do you want to feel my muscles?"

Oh Great! Another curve ball.

Little did I know there were many more to come!


To be continued