Our Love Story, Part One

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I’ve never been one of those hopeless romantics who talks about their dating life non-stop, so I have never taken the time to write about how Jacob and I fell in love. In fact, most of my close friends don’t even know the story, so this post is certainly overdue!

Our love story actually started years before we even knew each other...you see, our moms were best friends in High School and they continued that friendship into adulthood. Unfortunately, our mothers lived just far enough apart that it was inconvenient for them to get together (and they had husbands who controlled their every move), so ironically Jacob and I never actually got to meet when we were little. His family moved to Arizona when he was 9 or 10, forcing our moms to keep in contact through the occasional phone call, extremely rare visits, and mandatory Christmas card. Because of this, Jacob and I grew up aware of each other but never thought anything more of it (although, I did make numerous comments about “that cute boy” in their family pictures).

When I was probably 17, mom made a trip out to visit Jacob's mom (Kim) in Arizona. What I didn't realize, is that Kim had told Jacob that I was probably coming with her and that he could help entertain me (an obvious attempt to set us up), but I actually didn't go on that trip. We'll chalk that one up to fate because he was a partying 23 at the time, and wouldn't have been the least bit interested in an underage girl who he had to babysit.

Fast forward a few years…Kim gets diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis wasn't looking good. Mom made a few more trips out there to visit. After spending a lot of time with Jacob and watching how he cared for his mother, mom started making comments about how amazing he was. Unfortunately, Kim passed away and never got the chance to see us together; however, it is 100% because of her (and her unfortunate passing) that we are together.

You see…after his mom passed, I tracked him down on facebook and sent him a message letting him know that I was there if he needed anything. We may have sent a casual message here or there but nothing serious. Then, as my mom's birthday approached in July I realized how sad she was that she wouldn't have Kim to talk to on her birthday, so I sneakily got Jacob's phone number from her phone and text him asking him to reach out to my mom on her birthday. He did and of course mom was ecstatic to have heard from him.

Now, having each other’s phone numbers, we talked every couple of weeks. By December, we were talking every day and joking about meeting each other. I finally got brave (probably a late night on Ambien) and asked "what would you do if I showed up at your door one day?" I don't recall his answer, but it was something to the extent of he would be excited. That was my green light! I started looking at flights and booked a weekend trip for March.

As Valentine's Day approached, he was starting to feel me out to see if there were any other guys in the picture by asking if I'd get flowers from anyone--I said “No...I never get flowers on Valentine's Day.” As it turned out, I didn’t get flowers that Valentine’s Day either, but not because of lack of effort on his end--he actually ordered flowers for me, but the flower shop was so busy that they didn't deliver them that day. Towards the end of the day, he confessed that I should have received flowers--I was so surprised (and he was quite angry)! Needless to say, when the flowers arrived the following day, I was swooning...

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Love Story…