My Love Story: The Bowling Alley {chapter 5}
This is the story of how my crush became my husband. Each Wednesday I’m sharing another piece of the puzzle. Need to catch up? Here is last week’s post: Not Interested
Again I found myself talking to Nate at the local bowling alley. It was our college’s late night bowling event. I was with my girlfriends. He was with his guy friends. Most of the night had already gone by before we stood face to face and started chatting.
“So there is something I wanted to talk to you about,” he started.
Oh no.
My heart literally went into panic mode. This was it. He was finally going to acknowledge my crush and tell me that he doesn’t feel the same way. Oh my gosh… I could barely breath.
Nate stood before me and was saying something about us spending time together, but I was barely paying attention. I was just waiting for the bomb to drop. I was waiting for those awful words. I was literally pinching myself. I had my arms crossed at my chest and was pinching my side with my left hand. It was my body’s way of freaking out while I attempted to keep my face looking normal.
“I have developed an interest in you.”
*jaw drop*
“What?”
Nate went on to repeat himself and tell me how much he admired me. Now for you reading along this isn’t very surprising since I married the guy, but in the moment I was completely stunned.
Stunned and elated!
HE LIKED ME!!!
We sat down in that bowling alley, the same one he had tried to ask me out in just a year earlier, and shared our feelings for each other. I was on cloud nine.
The late night bowling event was ending, so we agreed to meet the next day to talk about what this could mean for Nate and me.
I remember several things about the night that Nate and I met to discuss our mutual attraction. I remember…
- I was extremely nervous, yet was filled with excitement.
- It was the only night for that entire year that all 3 of my roommates were gone.
- We watched the movie Office Space. Well, maybe Nate did, but I sure didn’t. My mind was 100% on him.
- One of us said, “I feel so comfortable with you. It feels like we’ve known each other for years.” I don’t remember which one of us said it, but we both felt it.
- Nate drank almost all of my roommate’s iced tea. I was worried she was going to be mad.
- I asked if I could hug him and then…
- He kissed me.
I was so happy. I can still feel the excitement in my chest when I think about that night.
I can’t properly put into words the intensity of that night. We didn’t go any where special. We didn’t do anything extraordinary. It was just the two of us finally finding the freedom to share our feelings with each other and it was one of the most romantic moments of my life.
The next night I decided to ask Nate some hard questions. I needed to know what I was really getting myself into.
Tell me your love story! Did you wait longer than *ahem* one night for your first kiss?
Read Chapter 6: The Moment I Knew.
Top Image by Amanda Faye Photography
Reading this entry reminds me of when Chad and I had our first date. It was just like that…familiar. We just kept talking and talking and it was so nice to sit down finally and connect (as we had been doing a similar dance of does he like me or not thing). I think we waited until our second date before we kissed! But it was over after that first kiss…ah….sigh!! I am totally in love with hearing about your love story!! I can’t wait for the next entry! Thank you again for posting/sharing it!
I am so glad you are enjoying this series. It has been fun for me to remember each of these important moments.
I am picturing this…. so Rebekah! I love it!
“I had my arms crossed at my chest and was pinching my side with my left hand. It was my body’s way of freaking out while I attempted to keep my face looking normal.”
Dude. I was totally freaking out.
As I read this it brought memories back from when my husband and I met. I was a waitress and one of the girls that I worked with gave me a napkin that had his name and phone number. When I only had 2 customers sitting at one table and was taken care of before talking to him. I went over to his booth and sat down. He told me a lot about himself and one thing I will never forget that came out of his mouth was…”I have been watching you”…yeah that freaked me out! He had told me that he would like to hang out and so I told him that there was a college group gathering that our church does and we could hang out there. There was no way I was going to go with him that didn’t have many people. But I ended up loving him months after.so we did get married. That’s the short version of the story. Lol.
Suzanne, that is such a cool love story. Do you still have the napkin???
Hard questions, already? One date and you’re getting super-serious on him?! I want to see how this plays out…
Just working my way through these. One after the other. I love this. 🙂
My hubby and I did not wait for our first kiss. 😉 Declared our mutual affection and shared our first kiss (the first ever for both of us, in fact!) on the same night.
I think it ended well. Going on four years of marriage now. 😉
#1 – I love that you are reading through all of this, Jamie. 🙂
#2 – I love even more that you took the first kiss plunge on night number one also! It is sweet that it was the very first kiss for both of you. I bet you were nervous! Goodness… I was nervous and it wasn’t even my first ever kiss.