So, a little less than a month after my last post, my life changed forever. It's a bit of a long story, even though everything happened so quickly...
Skip back just a couple months to Sunday, July 15th. So far my summer had been spent, for the most part, just going to work and finding time in the evenings to catch up with a few friends from high school/USCA. I had been called as the Aiken Ward Young Single Adult Representative several weeks back, and still hadn't been sustained in church. (Or so I thought. Turns out, they'd finally sustained me when our family went to Washington, D.C. for the week of the 4th of July.) I found out there was a YSA committee meeting that evening, the time overlapping with the time of Ben Welker's missionary farewell party. I decided to try to squeeze both in... but I was really late getting from church to the stake center for the YSA meeting. I was stuck outside, with a few other people. One of them was Grandpa Taylor, but he didn't have a key anymore. Thankfully, we finally got someone's attention inside, and we were let in. In fact, I think it was Steven who opened the door. I wasn't paying much attention yet. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
Because I was an hour late, the activities had pretty much been completely planned already. But we did talk about maybe having a YSA dance sometime. Me, being me, and always hoping SOMEbody else at a dance knows a thing or two about ballroom dancing, casually asked if anybody happened to know how to ballroom dance and if maybe that could be a part of the dance activity. The brother sitting across the circle from me raised his hand a little and said something along the lines of "yeah, I do, a little, I used to teach..." I was a little bit floored. He was cute, I was pretty sure he'd been the gentleman to hold the door, AND he danced? I was definitely going to have to flirt with this one, maybe even see if I could get a date before I went back to school.
Ha! Boy did I ever.
I think he noticed when I noticed, but I'm pretty sure he dismissed it at first, too. I kept trying to make eye contact and smile, but the fellow who seemed a bit glued to his side was staring, unabashedly, and it's kind of hard to aim a smile with such precision as not to be perceived as smiling at the person right next to the intended recipient. I didn't want to go overboard. This other guy was either zoning out or I must have looked *really* good that day. At the end of the meeting, I was heading back to Aiken for Ben's farewell, and everyone else was heading over to the Criswell home for YSA FHE. Determined to say some sort of friendly goodbye and try to lay a foundation so I could talk to him the next time I saw him, I tried to call out a goodbye... but the other guy carpooled with him... bummer. So I called out a goodbye anyways, and the other guy looked up while he just got into his truck. Man! That backfired. Oops.... ohwell. Whatever.
So I made my way hastily back to Ben's farewell, where Bishop Askew brought up the vast probability that I would be married and might even have a kid by the time Ben got back. I laughed it off. Me? Married and kids within the next two years? Fat chance. I was pretty involved in my schoolwork to have much of a social life, so unless the guys picked up their game (which, I was pretty sure they would once I moved out of Freshmen Housing. Most of the preemies weren't really into dating, after all) and somebody really was interested, I probably wasn't going to get too serious for awhile. The time came to say goodbye, and it was kind of weird to think that I wasn't going to see Ben for two years. That's kind of a long time. Even weirder was the thought that I might have a different last name when he got back. As improbable as it seemed to me at the time, the bishop did have a point. These things do happen. I wondered if I would send him a letter and just sign my new last name, or if I'd mention it only briefly in the letter... or if I wouldn't say anything at all and he'd just find out when he got back? Then I reminded myself that I didn't have to worry about that yet, and I probably wouldn't have to, either. (Ha! Right.)
At some point on Sunday I found out this guy's name. His name is Steven Estep. :) The other guy's name, for reference and to help keep things straight, was Kevin.
The next time I saw Steven was at Institute on Tuesday. I liked his sincerity and his insights. I was still hoping to maybe get a chance to talk to him, but he was gone by the time all the clean up was finished and I looked around for him again. I might've rolled my eyes a little.
The week passed, and Friday night I went to the YSA party at the Criswell home. It was supposed to be a pool party, and we were supposed to all bring a friend, but we got rained out and none of the people I invited ended up being able to make it. But Steven was there, so it was another chance to try to talk to him. Except... Kevin was trying to talk to me. But we played games as a large group and laughed and told jokes and had fun. And then Steven and Kevin left at a decent hour because Steven's responsible like that, and I went with another YSA friend Audrey to Waffle House.
After a long and interesting conversation with Audrey... I convinced Audrey to text Steven and see if I could have his number. He, of course, was asleep at that very early hour, but later on Saturday texted back "I approve" I sort of did a victory dance around the house. Texting back and forth ensued... only a little bit, at first, and with long breaks between texts. Saw Steven at YSA FHE on Sunday. Split a brownie. Still didn't get much of a chance to talk to him outside of our discussion in FHE. Audrey called and set up a dog-walking party. Later during the week I texted Steven on my own and set up a Big Mo date (although the technicalities of who asked whom are arguable, since I sent the first text but Steven was the one who actually asked if I'd like to go). As for dogwalking....I don't know if Steven knows this (well, he will now) but I was in on the dog-walking thing from the beginning. I'm pretty sure Audrey just told him I'd be hanging out with her that Saturday and might be coming along. I borrowed Lizzy from Grandma and Grandpa Taylor, because I was pretty sure I'd feel really awkward showing up to a dog-walking party without a dog, even if he had already approved me. Besides, at this point I'd gone through his whole Facebook page and knew that he loved dogs, so it'd give us something more to talk about if I brought along a dog, too. Right? Right. Is that shallow? No. Maybe. It's not like I hadn't ever dogsat Lizzy, she was the closest thing I could call 'my dog', so whatever, I went for it.
The dogwalking went really well, we finally got a chance to really talk, and after some time of walking, Audrey had to go to work, and then Steven asked me to dinner. :D We went to Pizza Joint, because they like dogs, and then after having talked all through dinner and still not wanting to part ways, we took a walk down the Riverfront, too. At the end of the date, Steven looked like he wasn't quite sure if he should give me a handshake or a hug, so I didn't let him decide and gave him a hug. I had developed quite the crush.
No comments:
Post a Comment