My Whirlwind Romance Part Three: Engaged Before Our First Date

Read Parts One and Two of My Whirlwind Romance here.

Just like that, the cloud I had been living over seemed to dissolve. School and work were going well. I was making new friends. And suddenly, guys started to notice me.
Perhaps it was because I was no longer silently screaming “Are you talking to me, freak?”
Suddenly, I had gone from no plans to a full calendar.
A co-worker set me up on a blind date with a cute fireman.
A guy in the car stereo installation shop was planning to teach me to surf on our next day off together.
And J and I had gone out on a handful of dates.
He was cute. He had a real job – a police officer. He was sweet and nice and he really liked me. That’s why I couldn’t figure out why I felt nothing when we spent time together. Maybe I just hadn’t given him enough of a chance…
In addition to all the flirting dating, I was steadily developing another relationship.
A great friendship.
That guy from the dance, (let’s just call him W, shall we?) started coming in to buy CDs and look at car stereo equipment, just about everyday – right before my break. We got to know each other over daily lunches.
I didn’t have to try to come up with things to talk about. We just talked…or we didn’t and that was okay, too. When there was silence, it wasn’t awkward. It was comfortable. I found myself telling him things I’d never told anyone before, things that you would only tell your best friend.
W + Heidi = BFF
Everyday at lunch, I would ask him when he was going to let me drive his car. It was a running joke with us. He had just bought a new blah-blah-blah, whatever and he was quite proud of it. So of course, I started asking him to let me drive it. I didn’t really care, I just liked watching him squirm.
The first few times, he uncomfortably mumbled something about his insurance. But one day, he came up with an answer that silenced my questioning. That day, W told me that the only person he’d let drive this car would be a family member. His mom, dad, brother…a wife.
We both cracked up, joking about a girl who would marry a guy just to drive his car.
That must be some kind of girl!
That must be some kind of car!
It was even funnier when the kitchen sent out a little congratulatory dessert.
For our impending marriage.
I had an acquaintance that worked at the restaurant. An acquaintance that apparently misunderstood what he had overheard.
Red faced, I laughingly explained that we were just friends.
And then he asked me out.
I was becoming entirely too popular.
All of these other dates couldn’t fail to come to the attention of J. We were obviously not exclusive. And our time together was not physical; we never went beyond hand holding. In fact, the only difference between a date with him and lunch with W was the awkwardness that happened on a date.
Shortly after my and W’s ‘engagement lunch” J asked me to go into the city with him. His exact words were, “Heidi, I have to go to Portland later this week. Want to go?” I assumed I was accompanying him on an errand, and agreed. I thought I’d hang out with him one last time, to see if there was a spark. Or even a spark of a spark.
I might have thought this was just an ordinary date, just like the others, but J had other plans. He told W that he felt it was time to move things along with me. He was going to plan an entire evening of special events. At the end of the night, he was going to ask me to stop seeing other guys and be his girlfriend.
To be continued tomorrow…