How it all turned out! Love story part 3

"So do you want to?"

"What?"

"Feel my muscles, I've been working out and my pecks are huge, come on, feel this" pointing to his chest

"No I really don't want to feel your muscles, I'll pass" I say incredulously

"C'mon I know you want to............here, give me your hand" before I can protest he reaches down, takes my hand and puts it squarely on his left pectoral muscle....."isn't that awesome?" he says with a huge smile.

"yeah, sure" I say as I pull my hand quickly away from that awkward grope and roll my eyes. This guy is definitely not my type.

He then bursts out laughing and I don't know if he is laughing at me or what? Heck, he is the one who just forced me to touch his chest and he has the audacity to laugh at me.

I can see his eyes searching mine almost as if this were some test and he was seeing if I passed and he laughs some more. I start to laugh at the whole absurdity of it all.

Everything that has just transpired would tell me that I was dealing with an arrogant muscle head who loves himself and is body obsessed but everything in his eyes, laughter and demeanor makes the whole experience feel more like a child who has just shown me his cool double jointed finger. He just has an air of absolute good natured humility. I would guess the whole exercise was more about a catching me off guard in a funny way than his need to have his muscles validated.

My head is in a low velocity swirl at this point, I have never met anyone like him. He is so completely the opposite of anyone I ever imagined being interested in, yet I like that he is so unique.

At this point we are nearing the parking lot and he asks if I am hungry....it's about 4:00 in the afternoon and he suggests we go to Taco Bell together and grab a bite. Sounds good...............then he says, "where is your car parked?" Oh no, I feel sick, once he sees "poo" it's over. I stall....."Where's your car I ask, praying that his is as bad or worse. "It's right there," he points to a brand new shiny red Honda Civic. Great, there is nothing to do but lay it all out there and see where the chips fall. "Mine is the brown one over there". He looks and doesn't seem phased. 'Poo' passed......we are off to a good start.

He decides that we should drop my car off and go together and then suddenly he changes the location from Taco Bell to The Training Table. It is starting to feel more like a date and less like a casual 'grab a bite'. I'm OK with that!

Dinner was fun, I have never laughed more or felt so at ease. When the check came it was obvious that neither of us wanted it to be over. "What are you doing the rest of the night?" he asked. It was Saturday and whatever lame plans I had with friends just melted away...."nothing" was my reply. Looking back I should have played harder to get.

We were still in work clothes so he dropped me off to get changed and said he'd be back in 30 min.........30 min later he arrived and to my horror, we were dressed exactly the same. We were both wearing brown leather loafers, dark blue jeans, a chambray shirt with a white t-shirt underneath. We looked identical. We both laughed and I headed off to change when he stopped me...."no, I don't care if you don't". I didn't, so off we went dressed exactly the same.

Our first date lasted 12 hours. Here is how it went:

Went to a friends b-day party

Went to the grocery store, I needed to get something for the lesson I was teaching at church the next day. We were there forever walking through the isles and talking....we didn't care that we were in a grocery store.

Back to his apartment to play pool with his roommates

Off to a comedy club...........so funny I remember laughing so hard I cried.

Went to a midnight movie (Regarding Henry) cried again for different reasons.

Sat in the parking lot of my apartment complex and talked until 4:30 am. When I got out of the car I did so begrudgingly, it had been a whirlwind night that I didn't want to end.

The things I knew by the end of our first date:

He was nothing like the idea I had of the man I would marry.

He was the most real man I had ever met. No pretenses, he never wears a mask and says and does exactly what he thinks and is. This makes things very interesting.

He is happy to the core and laughs more than anyone I had ever known.

I felt like I had known him my whole existence and being together was just a reuniting not a meeting.

I never wanted to be away from him.......ever.

I knew I would marry him.

We never spent a day apart after that first date. It took two weeks for him to finally kiss me and at about the same time I asked him where he thought we were headed and his answer was "Oh there is no question we will be married" In two and a half months we were engaged and 5 months married. A fact that I really don't want my daughters to be aware of because if they try to marry someone that they have only known 5 months I will FREAK!

Life has not always been easy, our first year of marriage was very difficult but we have gotten better every year, weathered every storm, and built a deeply happy life together.

I adore this man!!..............and he still has great muscles! In fact when he saw the picture below (at the top of the last post) he said "Oh that totally looks like me!" He still has me laughing!