How I Came to Be Mrs. Malone Part II

Since I did keep a pretty faithful journal during the months leading up to our first date, I could probably give you a day-by-day account of the time between that St. Patrick's Day dance and May 2nd, our first date. I'll try not to bore you with the details. I realize, in retrospect, that the time it took between our birthdays and David asking me out was not that long, but it seemed like an eternity to me.

After those first few meetings, I was interested in David, but as nothing more than a fun person to date. I was certainly not looking for anything serious because I knew David would be leaving Monterey soon to move to Hawaii, and I was planning on going to graduate school. In fact, it was the week after our group outing to the movies that I got my acceptance letter from GWU and decided to move to Washington, D.C. But still, I could not get David off my mind. I did things I had never done before. I would call to talk or invite him to hang out. I would text him. I would approach him first. I had never, ever had the courage to do this with any boy before and that, in of itself, should have been some clue to me that this was more than just a passing fancy. But lucky for me, I didn't see things that way. Otherwise, I would have packed up camp and run far, far away and never have talked to David again. (This probably explains why I didn't date much at BYU.)

In any case, over the next few weeks, David and I would text back and forth. (I wasn't the proficient texter then as I am now. It would take me five minutes to type out some short response. David would respond five seconds later with a lengthy novel. But I caught on quick.) I found ways to be involved in activities I knew David would participate in. I created events to invite him to. And I also second-guessed myself and over-analyzed every little thing that David said. On the one hand, I was pretty sure that David like me too, but on the other hand, he would not ask me out.

On March 29, my sister and I held a "Something on a Stick" dinner party. Everything we served--from shish kabobs, to fuit kabobs, to carmel apples, Popsicles, and cheese on toothpicks--was on a stick. We loved having dinner parties and this particular party was held as much for the actual food as for the chance it gave me to invite David over for dinner. The night of the party, David stayed for over an hour after everyone had left, to help clean and to talk.

The next two weeks were excruciating for me because I hardly heard or saw David at all. I didn't really realize it at the time, but David was prepping to take the DLPT, the massive language test that every linguist has to pass in order to leave DLI and actually start working. It's a huge deal and quite a number of people fail. If you fail after two chances, you're out of luck and get re-assigned to another job. So big, massive, life-changing test. Hence, I was in misery, waiting for David to call me, while he was in misery trying to pass this test.

In that time, I got asked out by another guy in the ward who I had gone on one date with before. While he was somewhat socially awkward and often forgot my name (he called me Cassy on numerous occasions), I didn't see any reason to turn him down. I even thought it might be a good hint for David that he should ask me out since he was not the only boy around. So on April 8th, as I was getting ready for this date, I FINALLY got a call from David, asking if I wanted to hang out. I regretfully declined, told him all about my date, and we then proceeded to talk for 45 minutes until my date showed up and I hung up on David in a hurry.

The next day--Sunday--I proceeded to throw myself at David and while we did eventfully end up hanging out that night, I felt like a complete and utter fool for all my efforts. However, the next night at FHE, my stalker [Paul, a very awkward young man who got it in his head that he was in love with me and would not leave me alone] came up to me and told me that I was "glowing" at church the day before. I wrote this in my journal that night:

"So I glow. And I know why. And my cat knows why. And I hope David knows why because he's the reason I'm glowing. But I couldn't tell Paul that the reason I'm glowing is because I have a crush/non-crush (emphasis on the crush) on David and that honestly part of the reason that I like David, besides the fact that he's so funny and gentlemenly and adorable, is because he's nice to Paul which is a difficult thing to do and that most people (including myself) are not so good at. I told him that ever since I got into George Washington, things have just been looking up for me
and I've been happier, which is true. But at glowed at church because of David. I glowed. And maybe only freakish ex-stalkers saw it, but maybe, just maybe, David noticed too and liked what he saw."

There was little further interaction with David until Easter weekend, when he again called me to hang out but my sister and I were driving down to San Diego so I understandably couldn't make it. While home that weekend, though, I ended up calling David just to talk and we chatted for about two hours. The next Wednesday after Easter (April 19), I called up David to invite him over for dinner on Saturday because we had invited the missionaries over and needed another male to be there too. We ended up talking for 5 hours that night. (He had just finished taking his DLPT that day so he was in a very good mood. He found out the next day that he had passed.) Even though it was a great 5 hour conversation, I had somehow convinced myself in the course of our conversation that David would never ask me out.

Saturday night, David came over for dinner. Afterwards, we were trying to think of something to do but it was getting late and all the options were swiftly dwindling. Then my sister announced that we had to leave because she needed to prepare her Relief Society lesson for the next day and she needed peace and quiet. David and I went out to his car and started to drive aimlessly. Again, from my journal:

"So we drove down to Asilomar, which is a beautiful and more deserted section of the peninsula, right on the coast and we walked down to the beach, and climbed on the rocks, and looked at the stars (we never did find Orion) and hunted for frogs who were hiding out in the rocks. Eventually, we just sat down on a little rock [I now call this rock the "Rock of Confession"]together and talked. Obviously, we were very close together and although we were touching (arms, elbows, knees) at several points, he never tried to get closer. His face was right there and it was so tempting just to lean over the 10 inches and….well, it never happened. Because I believe the guy should make the first move and because he would never do it, regardless of whether or not he does like me, which is still up for debate. So we sat and talked and it grew colder and colder until I couldn’t feel my toes and poor David was probably half frozen because he didn’t even have a jacket. He drove me home and we sat in his car and talked for a little while before he went around to open my door and walked up to my apartment door because he’s a well-taught Southern boy. We talked for a little longer on the doorstep (and conversations on any doorstep at any time with any person are always awkward) until I opened the door and said goodnight. So, by that time it was 2 am and I texted him to say “thanks, I had a good time and good night” and then fell asleep. "

The next Monday, after FHE, David and I ended up sitting in the church parking lot until midnight, just talking. Again, there was no physical contact, there was no asking out on dates. By this time, we were seeing each other more and more and talking quite often, but I still had no idea what David was thinking or if he was even going to ask me out at all. It was around this time, at the end of April, that I was getting frustrated with all the waiting. I was sure that there was mutual affection on both our sides, but David still had not asked me out and time was dwindling. I was ready to give up and just walk away. And then Sunday happened.

Sunday, April 30th I was looking cute. I got to church and saw that David's normal pew was empty and I decided to sit there and wait for him to come into the chapel. I don't know what possessed me to sit there. I just did, even though I thought about getting up and moving 50 times. David finally came in, sat down next to me, started chatting with me, but I knew something was wrong. He found excuses to go talk to other people, he wouldn't look at me. It was SO painfully awkward and uncomfortable. I knew that David didn't want me there. I didn't want to be there either once I realized how much David did not want me being there, like I was trespassing onto his property and I didn't have permission to be there, but he was too nice to tell me to leave. I thought of getting up to go to the bathroom and not returning. I thought of just moving. I thought of feigning some illness and just leaving church all together. But no, I had to just keep sitting there for all those sixty plus miserable minutes. As soon as Sacrament Meeting was over, David bolted and I was done. I couldn't do it any more. All this time I thought David and I were growing close, becoming friends, more than friends. But in one Sunday, I had wrecked everything. I didn't understand what happened, but I knew I had done something wrong. And I figured that was sign that I needed to let me know that I was wasting my time with David and so by the end of the day, I had decided whatever it was that we had was over.

I'd rather that David tell his side of the story of what happened that night, but apparently, my sitting next to him in church was just the kick in the pants that he needed to finally make up his mind about me. And he resolved that night--just as I had given up all hope--to ask me out, which he did the next night after FHE.

On Tuesday, May 2nd, David and I went on our first date. He picked me up and we went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Afterwards, we ended up at Starbucks where we ordered a hot chocolate and David pulled out a few coloring books and Crayons that he had purchased earlier that day. There was a Curious George one for him and a Disney Princess one for me. So we sat there, talking and coloring, until they kicked us out of Starbucks. David drove me home and we sat in his car and talked about this and that until somehow (I can't remember how it all happened) we were confessing our feelings for one another and kissing. And just like that, we were together. There was no defining the relationship, we just were. We fell effortlessly into being a couple and the next month we had together in Monterey was full of wonderful, beginning of a relationship memories.

But if you think all the excitement and drama was over once David finally asked me out, you'd be wrong.

That's part III.