A Love Story With No Ending

September of 2001 was the start of my sophomore year of college.  My roommate and good friend Muffy and I had moved  to a new apartment building.  We made friends with two guys who lived in the apartment across the sidewalk from us. They frequently invited different people from the complex over to play games on a regular basis.  I initially met Two Fish while playing Uno and sort of pretending to watch a football game on TV.  Sports on TV isn't my thing.  After that I would see Two Fish at church sometimes.

Then, I saw him several days in a row walking home from school.  We would both arrive at the corner of Campus drive just before the Carolina Bells building at the exact same time.  For some reason I started thinking that it was weird that we never acknowledged each other and that he was going to think I was some kind of stalker or something.  (My only explanation for this was that he and his friends were being stalked by a pathetic group of girls in our complex that I didn't want to be associated with.)  So I decided to just blurt out: "Hi, remember me?  We played Uno together, I'm not a stalker.  It's pretty funny we always get here at the same time."  Smooth. I think I incoherently talked his ear off until we got to our cars parked in the Marriott center parking lot.  I  kept trying to compensate for the complete silence I was getting in return.  He did walk beside me the whole agonizing way to the car but I'm pretty sure he didn't say a word.  Embarrassing. Mortifying.  Slam your head on your steering wheel when you get into the car and say: "stupid stupid stupid" before driving home and ducking into your apartment, kind of embarrassing.  Luckily this was not our last encounter.

Two Fish moved in with our mutual friends across the sidewalk.  Legend has it that they suggested I was cute and he should ask me out.  He told them I was too weird and I dressed really weird.  This is the stuff love is made of right? I decided we weren't destined to be friends because he pretty much refused to talk to me.  (He was incredibly quiet and shy- even more quiet than he is now.)  He came over to fix my roommates computer while I was cleaning my room.  I was knee deep in dirty laundry, text books and clutter and belting out the words to Ani Difranco and Metallica.  If we weren't going to be friends, it didn't matter right?  I again, talked his ear off.  This post makes it sound like that is the norm for me, but it really isn't.  By this point I think I was growing on him because he stayed for an awfully long time.

That semester, my roommate and I proceeded to harass him and try and get him to talk to us because we decided that we were going to befriend him against his will and we succeeded. I actually have it written in my journal the first time he ever really talked to me.  He came to rescue us when Muffy got a flat tire.  We rewarded him by tying a sock full of jelly beans on his front door with a note that said: "Thanks a bunchy sock."  I can't remember why that seemed hilarious but at least it got him talking to us.  I guess he could only ignore weird for so long.  Suddenly he was talking to us and sometimes sitting by us in church.

Our group of friends- 2002

 Two Fish and three of his roommates formed an inseparable bond with Muffy and I.  We started to do everything together.  We made dinners on Sundays, we went to the library together.  We woke them up to do headstands and cartwheels outside in the middle of the night because we were pulling an all night study fest.  It was an awesome, pressure-free friendship.  Two Fish would date different girls and I had a boyfriend who I thought I was pretty serious about.

Moving to London

The semester ended and I went to London to do an internship.  I wrote postcards about my summer to Two Fish and his roommates. I wrote to him about Wimbledon and Stone Henge, my job and everything else I did or saw that summer.   I really wish we still had those.  When I got home I called their apartment several times to see if they wanted to hang out.  Two Fish would almost always answer the phone and say something like: "Here, talk to Steve."  Isn't this story romantic?  Toward the end of the summer I broke up with my boyfriend and got ready to move back near school.

A lovely self portrait

I planned a big barbeque and four wheeling party at my parent's cabin just before school started.  I was dating some friend of a friend and it wasn't going well so I decided I should ride home with someone else.  I ended up riding home with Two Fish and we talked about music and discovered we liked the same bands.  He helped me move all of my stuff into my apartment and we stayed up all night talking with our friends.  I distinctly remember wondering if he had gotten cuter over the summer or if I had just never noticed that he was so handsome. 

I'm pretty sure both Muffy and I both got a lot of pressure to start dating one of these cute, nice, intelligent boys we spent the majority of our time with.  I know I did.  When Two Fish and his friends actually attended my brother's baseball games with me, my Mom kept saying: "You aren't going to stay friends with these nice boys forever.  They are going to start finding wives and girlfriends and you are going to miss out."  My grandpa thought Two Fish was especially a good catch.   In October, my roommate Muffy briefly considered dating Two Fish or we thought he was going to ask her on a date.  I don't remember the details. I just remember my reaction of complete jealousy and being totally baffled by it.

One Fish, Muffy & Two Fish- 2002

My birthday and Muffy's birthday are a week apart in November.  We decided to have a weekend up at the cabin with all of our friends to celebrate.  People came and went all weekend.  Some kid I had been on a couple of dates with came up for dinner one night.  And that is when the jealousy struck Two Fish. 

Suddenly Two Fish couldn't do anything by himself.  He really needed help picking out new pants for church.  He got sushi (which if you know how extremely picky and anti-raw fish he is, should make you laugh) with Muffy and I.  He drove an hour and a half with me to visit my best friend and go out for my birthday down town.  And then we drove all the way back and I stopped to drop him at his house.  He started to get out and then changed his mind and got back in the car.  And then he told me he liked me more than a friend and I quickly reciprocated.

We went on our first date to see my brother's band at my old high school and then to a laser show at the planetarium.   We were already the very best of friends.  We knew everything about each other.  He had seen me sick, mad, crying, happy, silly & ridiculous, on dates with other people, running on no sleep and everything in between.  I was pretty sure we were either going to get married or end up hating each other.  I was worried about losing my best friend.

The night he proposed- 2003

Three months later, February 15th 2003, he proposed.  We had talked about marriage, I knew he had talked to my Dad (which would be worthy of it's own post) and I knew it was coming but he still managed to catch me off-guard.  He came in the door to pick me up and handed me flowers.  I was nervous, talking ninety miles an hour and didn't even notice the sweetheart candy taped to the flowers.  I started to put them in a vase and finally noticed the candy said: "Marry me" on it.  I stopped talking and turned around and he was on one knee with the ring out.  I said yes and every day I wake up glad of making that decision.  On August 8th, 2003, we married in an LDS temple.  I get to spend my life with my very best friend.  Lucky, lucky me.