Our Story Phase Two: First Date

(For part one of the story, you need to scroll down to previous post)
Well, as it turned out, we never went to Sadie Hawkins. We began talking a lot on the phone and just seemed to not be able to get enough of each others thoughts. Our relationship took such a quick escalation, that we went on our first date before the event that brought us together ever took place. Rick asked me to a dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. I really enjoyed his company. (Photo is Our Date at Ed Debevics)
It was a great evening except for my distraction from his very 80's shirt. It was a bright turquoise blue with black circles/dots filled with various florescent shades of color. Lilo would have loved it. :)
The night of Sadie Hawkins, Rick and I and another couple decided to do it better with a night down at Ed Debevics in Beverly Hills. The theme of the Sadie Hawkins was fifties so we just went with that, but better. It was a fun night but I remember wishing we had just gone somewhere as the two of us. The couple we were with were heavy on sarcastic humor and neither Rick nor I are prone to that. We sat in the back seat all the way back to Masters and with a quiet demeanor.
Our relationship became so intense from the beginning that I began to get a little panicked. The more I got to know Rick, the more I liked him A LOT. It was just one of those things that fit together so well that you think the bottom of the world is going to fall out any minute because it's too good to be true. Our first date was on Nov. 7th (that Mexican restaurant date) and by two weeks later, I asked that we take a back up hit the breaks. I thought we should try to be just friends. I was so unsure that this was really what it was gearing up to be.
Rick came home with me for Thanksgiving, as friends. My parents loved him. My dad especially loved him, and thought he was the best. That scared me even more and I tried hard to fight the gushy feelings I had when I looked at him across the table of food and heard him so easily converse with my family as if he had been there forever. I was still fighting it when we sat out on the swing that swung from the big oak on the hill behind our house (my favorite teenage get away in tough times and hormonal surges). As we sat there swinging and talking I looked over at him and just KNEW this was the man I was going to marry. I knew it was true because I didn't want to know but something was telling me anyway. I was still trying to emotionally fight it.
Rick and I had another amazing and heart wrenching connection, something I had never shared before with anyone, not even any of my girl friends. We both had disabled siblings. My brother Scott is Rick's age and has Cerebral Palsy. Rick's sister Heather (who has since gone to be with the Lord) was mentally retarded (I hate that word, I wish there was another. I grew up in a time when kids used it fluently and toward each other and it would make my little stomach sick to hear them. The word itself has its place but I even have a hard time using it in context). So one of the sweetest surprises to me was that my brother Scott LOVED Rick from the beginning, and Rick had such ease around him. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Scott still loves Rick, sometimes I think more than me, but that's okay.:)

We came back to school and I felt like I was the only one out of my kin who was unsure. That was different; I had never had that happen before. Well, I don't remember how long I held out, but I know it was a matter of days after returning. We frequented this coffee shop that we just loved because it had a loft with couches and games, and they played jazz or forties music. We were sitting on the couch talking when we just noticed how we were scrunching closer and closer. I think Rick said something to the effect of "have you noticed that" and I responded affirmative. He asked me if this meant anything and I said I thought it did and he said something to the effect that he was glad. It was official, we were dating, and friendship alone was forever in the past tense.

Yes, there will be more!!!!