Our Love Story, Part Two

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You can read Part One of our Love story here.

Last time we left off, I had just received my Valentine’s Day flowers (a day late) and was preparing for my trip to Arizona. It was such an odd feeling going to meet Jacob—I mean, I had known about him my entire life and spent HOURS talking to him on the phone but had never seen him in person. I had no idea what to pack or how to feel, but I was so excited!

I don’t think I have ever had as many butterflies in my stomach as I did on that flight from OKC to Phoenix.  Once the flight landed, I text him and told him I had landed and quickly ran to the bathroom to check my hair and makeup. He opted to avoid coming into the airport to greet me at the terminal, like you see in all of the cheesy romance movies, which was probably for the best because I honestly wouldn’t have known how to act meeting him in front of all of those people. Instead, he asked me where I was standing in the pickup lane and said he would find me. Of course, given how directionally challenged I am, it took him awhile to interpret my directions and find me. Haha

When he pulled up, those butterflies that were in my stomach made their way to my throat and all I could do was nervously smile. He grabbed my suitcase and we headed to his house. I don’t think I stopped talking the entire 35 minute drive to his house—I have no idea what I said or if he even got a word in, I just know I was nervous and don’t like awkward silences so I made sure there was no opportunity for that! Haha. We stayed up late talking on Friday night and he grilled some food for us. I honestly could not get a good feel for the situation—did he think of us as just friends or did he want more?

On Saturday we went to the Medieval Fair (not usually something that ranks high on my list of things I want to do, but we had fun). On the way back to his house, the traffic was horrible and it was starting to make me nervous. All of a sudden, the car in front of Jacob came to a complete stop and Jacob had to slam on his brakes and swerve to the left to avoid hitting them. Boom! I thought we had a blowout from driving on the side of the road, but Jacob immediately said “that motorcycle just ran into us!” I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see a motorcyclist rolling on the ground, cars swerving to avoid running him over, and his motorcycle nowhere in sight. Apparently, he was going too fast to slow down and ran into the trailer hitch on Jacob’s truck, sending his bike under the truck and him into the air. What an end to our first date! I was so glad the motorcyclist was okay (aside from a little road rash) and nobody got hurt, but I could not stop shaking. Jacob felt really bad about scaring me to death and kept asking if I was hurt and telling me everything would be okay. After about an hour, we had the police report filed, the motorcycle was towed, and we were on our way back to his house. We were both so shaken up that any plans we had for that night were shot; we just sat and watched TV.

Sunday, we surprised his grandparents (who had actually met me before) and they were quite shocked because Jacob never told them that we were talking or that I was coming to visit. We had brunch with them and then headed to one of his friend’s houses for a cookout. Of course, everyone wanted to know who I was and how we had met. We told them we technically met online but knew of each other before and they kept giving us a hard time about it—they were convinced that we had actually met on a dating site like eHarmony (little did they know, it was more like meddlingmothers.com).  

At last, the dreaded Monday (the end to our first weekend together) had arrived and that meant Jacob had to take me to the airport. I don’t think we said a word the entire trip to the airport—we were both sad to see our visit come to an end. We hugged goodbye at the airport with not so much as a kiss on the cheek and I walked into the airport.

I sat at my gate thinking about everything that transpired that weekend, imagining the future we could have had, and choking back the tears at the thought of us just being friends. Then, I looked down at my phone to see a text from Jacob that said “Do you have to go? I don’t want you to leave.” A smile beamed across my face and with that I knew, we were more than just friends—we were meant to be.