I saw James again on Monday after our second date, and invited him over for dinner. It was that evening that he told me about some of the difficulty he'd experienced after our date on Saturday. I was deeply moved by his experience, and talking through it strengthened us both.
At one point later that evening, I was complaining about some facet or another of single life. James got really quiet for a moment, and I asked him what he was thinking. He looked at me and said, "You don't still think of yourself as single, do you?" And that's how I gained myself a boyfriend. :-)
We started to make plans for our third date, but had to work around the wedding of my half-sister Samantha, which was that Saturday. I was planning to spend Friday night and all of Saturday in West Valley for the wedding, which naturally led us to set up a date on Sunday. James determined to make liver & onions (mushrooms, as it turned out) for me, so I could see what it was really supposed to taste like. I was hopeful that it was going to be as good as he promised!
That week was very pleasant. James and I enjoyed spending time together. I remember that Wednesday in particular because it resulted in the first photograph of us as a couple--a pretty silly photo, all things considered! Ruth had not been doing very well at the time, so we, along with Kristen, decided to bake ninja cookies and take them to her. Of course, in the process, we got liberally covered in flour, some of it deliberate. :-)
On Friday I drove up to West Valley and immersed myself in my sister's wedding. (Forgive me, Sammie, if you ever read this!) Setting up for Samantha's wedding was an adventure, and not of the pleasant variety. This was mostly due to Sammie's in-laws-to-be, who were overly demanding, loud, and uncompromising. It didn't help that Samantha wasn't feeling well that night, and so had trouble making her desires known. It made for a very long evening, with lots of back-and-forth as we all tried to figure out what Samantha really wanted, and implement it.
The plus side of this nightmare was the conversation it sparked with James. When things reached a point where I felt like my brain was going to explode, I texted James. What started as me complaining about my sister's wedding soon turned into us talking about weddings. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely thrilled to be talking about weddings with James at that point. We talked about how we would both like a garden reception, and how we would never, ever have a reception in a church gymnasium. My hopes rose immensely that night. "If he's willing to talk with me about weddings," thought I, "He must imagine this going somewhere."
After the wedding on Saturday, several members of my extended birth-family went out to dinner. It was pleasant enough, but at one point, my pseudo-aunt Diana started probing me about my dating life, and Jenny (my birth father's wife) mentioned that I had a boyfriend. I insisted that it was still a very new thing. Diana asked me, "Could you see yourself marrying him?" And I, blushing of course, replied that yes, I could. She smiled and said, "That's all you need to know."
Driving home that night, I called James. It is a sign of how much we wanted to talk to each other, because both of us loathe talking on the phone. It wasn't as comfortable as talking in person, of course, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I was quickly coming to realize that I wanted to spend my life with James, and I had the feeling that my desire was reciprocated. I thought that night that maybe he would, eventually, ask me to marry him, maybe after a few months of courtship. I remember trying to suppress the thought, because I didn't want to get ahead of myself. But I hung up the phone with this strange hope forcing its way to the surface of my mind, that I could not entirely quash.
That was the last time that we spent a day without seeing each other. The next day, sixteen days after we started dating, was to become the most momentous day of my life up to that point. Not that I could have seen it coming!!
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