Our Love Story—The Next Day

The next day I got ready, undoubtedly taking at least a few extra minutes to ensure I looked my best (which again, probably consisted of one of my nicer t-shirts… I had no fashion sense!)

I skipped along to my 8 o’clock class, New Testament Survey with Dewey Bertolini. I confess he was my favorite professor. He never referred to his notes (he didn’t have to; his biblical knowledge was deep and vast). He also downed a 2-liter of Mountain Dew during those 50 minutes every morning… and his energy level reflected it!  

I sat at my table, doodling and daydreaming. I couldn’t help but smile remembering back to a time a few weeks earlier when Dewey pulled me outside before our 8 o’clock class and asked me what I thought of Rob. I laughed at him and said, “Dewey, he is the epitome of the kind of man I’d like to marry someday, but he’s 6 and a half years older than me and he’s been a Christian longer than I’ve been alive. Besides, he’s way out of my league!” He looked at me and said, “Ah, I’m not so sure about that. I think I’m going to have to have a chat with him.” And, for the remainder of the class he shot me these goofy little match-maker smiles.

That day Dewey cornered me in the lunchroom and told me that he had a chat with Rob before chapel that day. He didn’t give me the details of the conversation but he told me that although he doesn’t know if Rob’s ready for something (or someone… namely, me) just yet, but he gave me another one of his crooked smiles and said, “I wouldn’t rule anything out!”

I felt my whole face turn red and I spent the next several days avoiding eye contact with Rob. Though I had admired him from afar for weeks by that point, I still had no idea whether or not he’d thought twice about me as anything more than a friend. I knew however, that after that conversation with Dewey that he’d at least have to consider the possibility. If he hadn’t been looking at me closely before, he was certainly going to be looking at me under a microscope now. Yikes!

But tried and true, Rob never let on one way or another until our adventures the previous day. And again, even then, I read into everything he said and waffled back and forth about whether he was trying to tell me that he was interested, or whether he was trying to gently tell me that he wasn’t. On one hand I wished he’d just be real with me and spell out my chances. On the other hand, if he wasn’t interested, I’m not sure I wanted to know. I was enjoying my time dreamily considering my future with him… and I wasn’t sure I wanted to shatter that dream with reality just yet!

I’m confident that I didn’t learn a thing in class that day, just like I tuned Dewey out a few weeks earlier, while I let my mind wonder to the possibility of getting to know this guy better.

Lucky for me, I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long to strategically run into Rob. He didn’t have class during the 9 o’clock hour and he and I had a reoccurring “accidental running into each other” every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the computer lab. 

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Let me back up. If you know me, you know that I don’t like to get up in the morning. I never have, and I’m pretty sure I never will! The first couple of weeks of school I would wake up just before my 8 o’clock class, and then I would come back to my room and get ready between 9:00 and 9:45 until I made my way up to chapel. That is, until I discovered that Rob frequented the computer lab during this time.

Suddenly I decided that maybe I should get up earlier, get ready for my day, and spend the 9 o’clock hour working on my Ed Tech portfolio, which could only be done at the computer lab since I didn’t have a zip drive on my desktop back in my dorm room.

Trying not to be too obvious in my admiration (after all, I was learning that good Christian girls waited for the guy to make the first move), I made sure to sit in the same spot every day. I plopped my stuff right next to my friend Desiree who was the “Lab Rat” (the computer guru on duty to fix everyone’s problems). After a few days of this Rob migrated from his usual spot across the room and conveniently made his new regular spot the one right next to mine. Without fail, he and I would end up packing up about the same time and then we’d just happen to walk up the hill to chapel together on those days.

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Fast forward back to “real time”, 10 years ago of course, and I found myself eager to find my spot next to Rob in the lab and continue our conversations from the previous night. I was desperate to figure out whether it was Rob, or J who had taken an interest in me. Our 45 minute computer time yielded very little work by either of us that day, and I left that conversation just as confused as ever. We walked up to chapel together as usual, and sat on opposite ends of the gym, as usual.

I had noticed over time, however, that our walks up to chapel were done at a more and more leisurely pace as we both tried to milk every minute of our short walks alone through campus. Could I read into the fact that he moved spots in the lab, and that our walks conveniently got slower and slower each day? Maybe this meant he was interested? Then again, maybe it was just my wishful thinking? Perhaps he was just enjoying our friendship—and nothing more?

That day crept along, and I only pulled my head out of the clouds long enough to make sure I was always keenly aware of my surroundings. Namely, whether or not Rob or J were anywhere around. I don’t remember if I saw either of them during lunch that day, but I’m pretty sure J and I walked down to dinner together as was somewhat typical for us to do.

I hit the books hard that night, pausing every 5 to 10 minutes to ponder my current situation. How long would it take to decipher which of these guys (if either of them) were interested? I’d say it was a rough place to be in as a 19 year-old girl, but lets be honest, I’m positive I soaked up every minute of the mysterious, complicated situation I found myself gleefully participating in!


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