Our Love Story—A Little Bit Closer

Rob and I once again found ourselves spending time together at Willamette University on a chilly Spring evening. We found ourselves back in our favorite spot, on his green Navy blanket near the creek that ran through the middle of campus.

Just like we had done last time we were sitting by the creek, we spent hours upon hours simply enjoying each others company. Our conversations seemed to go deeper and deeper each time we hung out together.

I was falling in love. Oh sure, I thought I’d been in love before—plenty of times. But it’s easy to ‘feel’ in love when you’re smooching! I was falling in love with Rob despite the fact that we had only touched a total of 3 times in the duration of our relationship. Yes I was keeping track! Don’t get me wrong, I would certainly have liked for him to express his affection toward me in a physical way, and I wanted so badly to be close to him, but I was so grateful that we weren’t complicating our relationship at this point with things like kissing. Though, certainly there would be no harm in hand holding, right?

Most nights we hung out together I left my hand readily available just in case he decided to grab it. It was all I could do not to just reach over and grab his hand, but I was determined—utterly determined—not to make any first moves. It was so hard to be patient! This night, however, my hands were clasped together around my knees as I was desperately trying to stay warm. I didn’t want the date to end, but I wasn’t going to last long at this rate.

Then suddenly an incredibly strong breeze began to blow. It was almost more than I could bear. I was so cold! I squeezed my knees tightly to my chest and buried my head in my lap trying to wait out these wind gusts. I was no where near ready for this date to end, but I was going to have to call it a night if this wind didn’t die down in the next 23 seconds. I was freezing!

Noticing my discomfort (it would have been incredibly hard not to notice at that point!) Rob suggested that we wrap the blanket around us to keep warm. I scooted a little bit closer to Rob and tried my best to wrap the blanket around me while keeping an appropriate distance. It soon became evident however, that we would need to unfold the blanket to have enough room to wrap it around us. So we stood up and Rob shook the blanket out. Then we spread it out on the grass. Not wanting to be the one to determine how closely we would sit, I quickly found a spot near the middle and let Rob choose his spot from there. Much to my surprise he chose to sit very close to me. Close enough that I could feel the heat coming from his body, but not close enough to actually be touching.

As good as it felt to be near enough to keep each other warm it was almost torture to be this close, yet not touch! Before too long however, as we were both adjusting the blanket to figure out the best way to stay warm Rob pulled the blanket around us a little bit tighter. Then, before I knew it he scooted a little bit closer, and a little bit closer, until suddenly we were sitting as closely together as two people could possibly be, wrapped up in his scratchy green blanket.

My goose bumps turned into goose mountains as tingles shot all the way through my body. If ever in my life there had been a perfect moment, this was it! The stars shone brightly, the reflection of the moon glistened on the water, the smell of spring was in the air, the ducks flittered around in the water and the sound of the creek drowned out all other sounds as if its sole purpose was to create a little slice of solitude for us in the middle of this active college campus. Between the sound of the ducks, the creek and the breeze rustling leaves all around us, I felt like nature was creating its very own soundtrack to accompany this moment. This moment where everything in the world felt right as I snuggled close to the last man I ever wanted to be close to for the rest of my life.

As if it were just the natural thing to do I rested my head on his shoulder and he gently placed his head over on mine.

Despite the fact that we had both been talking a mile a minute since our date began we suddenly both fell silent. Words would only ruin this moment. And so much was being said between us without either of us actually uttering a sound. 

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