A Love Story: Part 2

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Yes, this is part 2 of 2. Let me catch you up. Part 1 was yesterday. Go read it.

I last left you after my first date with Sean. He had said goodbye and so on without so much as a meaningful brush against my arm. So I was pretty sure I was going to be single forever.

Sunday came and it was a quiet day all day. A loser from work called me. I knew he liked me but he was one of those that just likes to hang on the phone.

Him: “Hey. What are you doing? I’m doing laundry.”

Me: “REALLY? I’m REALLY glad you called to TELL me that.”

Thank God for call waiting. At exactly 6pm on Sunday, another call was coming in and I gladly ditched laundry man. It was Sean. My heart felt all giddy. He told me he had a great time and asked if I would like to go out again sometime. I cooly said that I would like that. So we made plans for the next night. A Monday night.

Who dates on a Monday night? It turns out that neither one of us could wait to see each other so we planned a casual evening of Chinese food at one of my favorite restaurants followed by some pool at a dive called Fat Daddy’s. Not really wanting to hang around a dive, we headed back to my apartment, which was fairly close by.

Guess what? It started snowing again. Remember when I said snow does occur in North Carolina but it’s not a regular thing? I meant that. So two snow events so close together was kind of rare. Without giving a second thought to the snow, we carried on with our plans.

We sat down in my living room because that was pretty much the only room I had in my apartment. I closed the lovely apartment-issued vertical blinds on my sliding glass door for some privacy and we began to talk.

And talk. And talk. And talk. We talked for hours. It was a wonderful evening but we realized it was 2am on a worknight. He got up to leave and that’s when we realized that the snow had been falling quite heavily for hours.

For those of you that lived in North Carolina in 2000, you may remember the big blizzard. For those of you that don’t live here, it might sound funny that people would remember one storm from 10 years ago. But it was a big one. And quite memorable. In fact, it shut the city down for days.

Okay you nor’easters. Laugh. You think that we can’t handle the snow way down here in the south. Well…YOU’RE RIGHT! We don’t plan ahead. We don’t have the equipment and so a few flakes will literally shut down the city.

This was not a few flakes. This was a record breaking storm.

“It wasn’t until January 24, 2000 when that record was broken by another tenth of an inch- 17.9 inches on the ground IN ONE DAY.” – NewRaleigh.com

Sean was not going anywhere. He tried desperately to maneuver his Beetle out of the snow. But with 18 inches of snow and 4.2″ ground clearance, that adorable Bug wasn’t going anywhere.

Ever the gentleman, he insisted he would sleep in his car. Instead, I made up a comfy couch for him where he slept. For the next 2 nights.

After our wonderful date, I was ready to crawl in bed and dream about future dates to come. Instead, we were snowed in together for 3 days. He saw me in the morning in my bathrobe and with my glasses on. He saw me without make-up. He sampled my cooking skills. And we talked. And talked. And talked.

We sat on the couch and watched the 24 hour news coverage of Winter Storm 2000. We saw them stretch to keep the news going but there is only so much you can say about snow on the ground. Instead, we made fun of every reporter, every newscaster, and pretty much anything we saw on TV.

We talked about our families and our histories. We talked about what marriage means. We ate my meager meal of spaghetti and drank cheap red wine that seemed fancy because I bought it in Paris. We basically crammed months of “getting to know you” time into 3 days.

So how did I know he was the one?

We finally dug his car out of the snow. He returned home on Wednesday and I missed him immediately. He went home to tell his sister that he had just met her future sister-in-law. I called my sister to tell her that I met my future husband. I saw him again Thursday night. And Friday night. And most nights thereafter.

We got engaged 3 months after our first date. We got married 3 months after that. When you know, you know.

And I’m happy to report that even though Brad and Jen only lasted 4 1/2 years, we are now officially at 10 years and counting. I knew we’d outlast them.