Meeting My Match (Part III)

Well, this is about a week later than I expected... Sorry guys. If you aren't up to speed on our little love story, you can read Part I here and Brandon's side of the story in Part II here! I've struggled to put Part III to paper (paper/computer... You know what I'm trying to say!) because I would love to lump all the "Dreadful Waiting Game" into one post, but I've come to the conclusion that it would be wayyyyyy too long to read in one sitting! So, I've decided to break it up and instead of knocking out our entire little love story in five parts... well I'm not sure how many parts it will take! I may have to refresh my knowledge of the Roman Numeral System!! 

We wrapped up Part II with the two of us meeting at Marble Slab for the big paper work exchange... Remember, he had decided to do a month long rotation in my hometown at my Uncle's Family Medicine Clinic and I was supposed to pick up the paper work and deliver it. So we met, I ate an embarrassing amount of ice cream and our conversation instantly fell right back in stride, just like normal...  except this time something was different. This time Mr. Nice Guy was also a little sarcastic and I liked it!! After we finished off our snack, we made plans to go try out the new Hibachi restaurant in town the following Saturday.

When Saturday rolled around I was swamped working on an event for the Pi Phi Alum Club and I had to leave my work there to run home and get ready before Brandon came to pick me up. In fear that I wouldn't be ready when he arrived, I decided to wear what I had on - it was casual but cute, a black short-sleeved top with jeans and black leopard flats. (This becomes relevant later in the story, kind of... Okay, on second thought, not really relevant at all, but it always helps me visualize a story if I know what the people were wearing!) This was one of those nights when you try on everything in your closet and then decide that nothing looks good so you go back to what you were originally wearing and you still don't feel good about it, but you are at the point that you just don't really care... Yeah, that's how my night started off, wonderful.

Then my doorbell rings and I swing open the door and there is Brandon, looking like he just walked out of GQ. He has on these dark jeans and this black button down shirt with one too many buttons unbuttoned, but I didn't care because I could see his chest and, holy smokes, I thought I just had my first hot flash! And of course, he is perfectly accessorized - big black masculine watch and black boots... In my head I can loudly hear, "Wowzers, what have you been thinking all these years... Oh, and yes, you are an idiot for wearing your "cute but casual" black top and those jeans that have clearly seen better days... Of all the days to go kind of casual, you picked today... What WERE you thinking?!" But I smile with fake confidence and give him a quick hug before briskly walking to his car (all while hoping that he won't notice that my jeans "have clearly seen better days"). Have I mentioned that he even drives a hot car? Parked in my driveway is this super shiny jet black camaro... For the first time in our four first dates, I am nervous!

We arrive at the restaurant and there are only a few people in the waiting area. Brandon puts our name on the list and we sit down and start chatting it up... all the people in the waiting area are seated and a new group arrives, we continue to catch up... that group is seated and then a new set arrives, our conversation continues... When the third set of people are all seated, we agree it's time to see why we keep getting skipped and when we check the time - it's been two hours!! We had been talking non-stop and didn't have a clue how long we'd been sitting there.

When we finally got seated, they put us at a table with 3 other couples who appeared to be about our age. If you haven't ever been to a hibachi restaurant let me tell you how this works... and look at the picture above... A cook comes out and prepares your dinner on the extremely hot hibachi grill in the middle of the table. He doesn't just cook, he puts on a show with LOTS of flair - think flames and jokes and knife spinning tricks. Unless you bring a big group, you are seated with strangers and sometimes small talk ensues, other times it's just awkward. This was one of those awkward times...

The couples that we sat with were all friends and, well, they were incredibly inappropriate. At first they didn't seem so bad... they asked us if we were on our first date. "Umm, yes, no, kind of... well, we've been on about three first dates... over four years." (Looking back on it, maybe we were the awkward ones!) Then they started basically mocking us. They kept saying, "Aww, first date... How sweet! Aren't they so cute... I think they should kiss, don't you guys think so?" and they didn't say any of it in a nice way, it was definitely mocking. (NOTE: During all of this I am seated so that if I look at B while he's looking at the redneck bullies, I can steal a glance of his chest because of that one button that was unbuttoned... I feel that at any minute he will catch me and we will go through this horribly uncomfortable moment where he says, "Excuse me, my eyes are up here." and it will be the epitome of role reversal... which just reminds me of my obvious insecurity - not quite 32A. Dang it, why didn't God give me boobs?! My mind is now racing and the rednecks are still mocking.) We just ignored them and resumed our previous conversation. Brandon is telling me about his medical mission trip to Honduras and how this one little girl ran up and held his hand the first day he was there and virtually never left his side for the rest of the trip... and she drew him a picture which he still has neatly folded away in his "Important Treasures" box. (I mean seriously, this guy is too good to be true! And I can't stop staring down his shirt... What is wrong with me?! I am creeping myself out!) And then the cook comes out...

Well the rednecks are excited about the show, so excited that they somehow convince the cook that it would be really fun if he gave us all the Rated R version of a lovely dinner. For reasons still unclear to me, he agrees that this is a great idea. Typically, the cook will make the fried rice into a heart shape and then stick the spatula underneath and tip the spatula back and forth so that it looks like the heart is beating and he'll use the sauce to draw an arrow through the heart (Think Valentines Day... or Crazy Courtney's tattoo that she drew on Bad Hair Ben, if you watch the Bachelor)... Cute, right? Here's what's not cute - when the cook makes your favorite fried rice into a male's you-know-what and then uses the sauce to, well, trust me it was dis-gusting and horribly, horribly, horribly inappropriate. Then he dumps a huge serving of fried rice on my plate. Umm, no thank you, I've suddenly lost my appetite.

Needless to say, this was hands down the worst first date we had gone on. We didn't leave the restaurant until 11 pm... five hours after we had arrived! We will NEVER go back there... But you want to know the craziest thing? Even with the two hour wait, the redneck mockers and the unappetizing, inappropriate food, I had the very best time. It was like the two of us were sitting in a bubble, watching all of this awkward chaos around us. We got in the car and laughed so hard... Did that really just happen?! Holy cow!

Brandon drove me home and I invited him in. We sat at my dining room table and spent two more hours filling in the gaps on the things we had missed in each other's lives. How medical school had been tough, but he'd figured out how to survive. How I had been in a serious relationship, but God had shown me that it wasn't in His perfect plan for me and the heartache that resulted. How he and his brothers were still inseperable. How one summer had pulled my cousins and I closer together than ever. How life was good for both of us and how happy we were to be on our way to being friends again now that he was back in Oklahoma.  

And when we left, he gave me a big hug and made zero mention of going to dinner or hanging out again.


Be Blessed!
Raegan