Early May
With less than two weeks of school left Rob and I were spending as much time together as humanly possible while still devoting at least a little bit of time and attention to our studies.
On one hand I remained utterly confused and conflicted about the fact that he hadn’t so much as held my hand. On the other hand I was all but convinced that if it were up to me I’d marry this guy tomorrow if he’d asked. I was that sure—even in the midst of my uncertainty (if that makes any sense?) that we had something incredibly special growing between us.
My uncertainty hinged solely on the fact that our relationship was decidedly platonic where all things physical were concerned, and that we never did put a label on what our relationship was.
In high school dating typically went something like this: One of us would specifically ask the other person if they wanted to “go out”? And seriously, go where? What a funny question that is come to think about it! The other would say yes. And that would give us official license to walk around school holding hands and smooching between lockers while trying to avoid any teachers that might be milling about. That’s how “love” works, right?
What Rob and I were doing was so different from anything I’d ever known or understood to be true about relationships that I was still having a difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that Rob liked me. He really liked me.
After all, we were still being quite secretive about spending time together. He never “asked me out” or referred to me as his girlfriend or himself as my boyfriend. He still hadn’t so much as held my hand let alone tried to kiss me.
Yet, we were spending copious amounts of time with one another and regularly talking about the potential of a future together.
And I was beginning to feel a whirlwind of feelings unlike anything I’d ever felt before. These weren’t Olivia Newton John (sing it with me… Let’s get physical, physical…) kind of feelings. They were unselfish, purely motivated, genuinely caring for this guy kind of feelings.
I truly, more than anything wanted what was best for Rob. And I prayed diligently that I would be part of God’s plan for his future. I prayed that God would continue to mold me into a woman that would be a suitable helper to him. It was clear that God was doing an incredibly significant work in my life—maybe this is part of his master plan?
Rob and I were discussing our upcoming summer plans as we strolled through Willamette University’s campus one evening. The next two weeks would be busy with dead week and finals, but we made plans to continue to spend some time together before we had to part ways for the summer… which was coming all too quickly!
Rob was slated to leave for camp team in the middle of June and I had my ticket to fly to Taiwan on June 26th. After school got out we would have about six weeks left on the same continent, but four of those remaining weeks would find us living nearly two hours apart and the other two would leave us states away from each other. As far as I could see, our time to hang out together was coming to a close until classes resumed in the Fall.
Rob began telling me about his upcoming plans that would fill his time between now and when he left. He was travelling down to Southern California to be in the wedding of a good friend just after school got out. And, he was travelling with a beautiful single college girl, I might add (that didn’t do much to ease my apprehension!). Then he told me he’d be home for a few days before he was going to travel up to the Seattle area to spend several days with his family. He planned to go from there to Eastern Washington to visit both sets of his grandparents.
As I heard him talk about all of his summer plans I was doing the math in my head. I would have approximately little to no time with him after school ended, save a brief window of time in the first two weeks of June. But, even at that we couldn’t spend that much time together because I couldn’t stay at his place, and there really wasn’t anywhere for him to stay at mine. So any time we did get to spend together would mean someone driving 4 hours in one day just to spend the day together.
I tried to push those thoughts aside though, and simply enjoy the moments we were having together while we still had the chance.
Much to my surprise however, Rob looked over at me and said, “What would you think about coming up to Washington with me so you can meet my family and we can spend some time together before we’re apart for two months?”
Say again? Did he seriously just invite me to come visit his family? That’s a huge step in our relationship. That’s three weeks away. Three weeks is a long time away to be planning such a significant trip in such a relatively new relationship. I didn’t realize he liked me enough to introduce me to his family—that’s huge! And spending time together for more than a week—travelling the countryside? Let me think about that for .03 seconds! Would I ever?
“Wow, that sounds like fun. I’ll have to double check that I can get the time off of work, but that shouldn’t be a problem,” I said as my heart leapt out of my chest.
Truth is, I’ll just quit my job if I can’t get the time off. I’m only working at the coffee shop for a few short weeks until I leave for the summer anyway. I wouldn’t miss this for anything!
Our relationship was moving so fast—yet so slow. It was a strange dichotomy that I was still trying to wrap my mind around.
But meeting his parents and his grandparents? Spending such a huge amount of time together? Making plans like these so far in advance? Maybe the fact that he was not initiating much in the way of physical contact wasn’t indicative of his feelings for me after all?
Maybe he really does like me? Maybe he really truly is considering me as a potential wife? Maybe he really does want to protect the purity in our relationship? Maybe he really is just a genuinely amazing guy?
Taking a guy at his word… novel concept, huh? I could get used to this. I could so get used to this!
Click on the "Our Love Story" tag at the top of the page to see other love story posts, or to start from the beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment