MONTHS later - Chapter 2

I met Paul in the fall, and knew him that whole school year. We stood next to each other twice a week and were grouped into the same quartet, meaning we'd hold quartet "sectionals" occasionally at his house. Here's where I have to admit something... I don't think I ever considered dating Paul during this entire time. From my point of view, we were just acquaintances/casual friends.

Instead of noticing Paul, I was obsessing over a different guy in the choir, and another different guy in my student ward, and then even over Christmas break that year, I dated someone from high school. I also had a bunch of good guy friends from the ward that showed interest in me, but my feelings for them weren't quite mutual. It's funny to look back now and think about just how many different dating opportunities I had that year. Trust me, this wasn't a typical situation for me, but I'm grateful for it because of the ability it gave me to compare and decide what did and did not really work for me in the relationship department. The relationship I had over Christmas break, especially, taught me a LOT about how I might need to change what I initially would have thought was my "perfect guy." To sum that one up, I was, in a sense, swept off my feet, but due to long-distance circumstances and a difference in religious views, the end result was a crash landing on my butt! I only mention this because it was what paved the road for Paul and me.

The end of the school year was nearing, and Paul must have kicked in some of his flirting skills, because I did start noticing him a little more (like how I thought he was a good dresser and fun to laugh with). We would hang out a little more after concerts and stuff, but as mentioned before, there were several other guys also on my radar screen.

At USU, there is this big annual event called A-day. It's actually a whole weeks worth of fun events for the students, and the final day is A-day. That year, somebody got the great idea of trying to break the world record of the most couples kissing at one time. Since A-day always had a "kissing component" to it anyway (kissing someone at midnight on the "A" (which is a pedestal in the shape of an 'A') on homecoming night, on A-day, or on a full-moon night, could make one a "True Aggie" - a very prestigious ranking!), breaking the record on A-day made perfect sense!

One of the interested guys in my ward casually asked me on the afternoon of A-day if I wanted to "break the record" with him. Having no interest in doing such a thing with this guy, I had to come up with something quick! Thank goodness, the Jazz Choir was performing in the 'aca-polooza' concert that night (all the groups performing were acapella groups). I lied to this nice neighbor of mine and told him that the choir had made plans that night to hang out together and we weren't sure if we'd even be up there for the event. Sorry! A couple hours later at sound check, I informed the choir that at least 2-3 of us had to hang out after the concert in order to make an honest woman out of me! Since we were all good friends by this point, a bunch of us agreed.

Fast forward a couple hours after the concert, there we all were up on the quad dancing and hanging out with a couple THOUSAND other students! It was nearing midnight and though I didn't want to kiss that neighbor friend of mine, I admit that I did want to find someone to kiss! (Confession: I enjoyed kissing back then even more than I still do now!) One of my married friends from the choir, Heather, told me I should just go ask Paul. Before then, I hadn't really thought about kissing Paul, but it wasn't a bad idea, so I went to talk to him! In talking, he made a comment about how lame this entire event had turned out to be, so instead of asking him, I just agreed with him, "yeah, it's pretty pathetic!" I said! I didn't ask him.

So, midnight was creeping even closer and it was looking like I was going to be sitting this one out. I was still standing with our group and Heather said, "I dare you to just ask him." So I turn to Paul and say, "Hey Paul, on a dare, I'm supposed to ask you if you want to go get a card." (They were handing out cards to people in order to keep track of how many couples were participating). He hemmed and hawed a little, so then I said, "The way I see it, we can either become a part of history, or just stand back and watch."

Stay tuned for chapter 2.5, "the kiss"