Derek and I set up a second date. How I ever convinced him to go out with me again after going full on crazy girl on him, I will honestly never know! Although it seemed like I set this up in the span of a few days, I really can't remember the exact details and timeline of everything. But I do know that this date happened after the first week of school, which means it was at least a week after the incident with The One Class Ring.
It was established that I had a roommate who was even more boy crazy than me, Alice (not her real name). We had another roommate who spent all her time in another dorm and one of their roommates spent all her time in our dorm, so we just decided to switch roommates. Which was a great idea because then I got to become really close to S (new roommate) and T (friends since we were 5) all three of us got along great. But Alice...she didn't care much for us unless we had something she wanted. Usually a guy. Or our food. Or in my case, a car and money because I had a job too. Alice began to sink her claws into Derek. I wouldn't say she was trying to steal him away from me, because she didn't care enough about him to really try. It was more that she liked collecting people who could give her things or do things for her, mostly guys, because she could bend them anyway she wanted. Anyways, she was trying to do this with Derek. And while I didn't feel threatened by her, I was bothered that she was trying. (I mean come on, hadn't she heard of the Girl Code?!)
Now that we've got that little bit of background out of the way (for past and future additions) let's start the actual story of the next two "dates" Derek and I went on.
Sammy's. Sammys was a new diner that had just opened up near campus. It was totally hipster, had delicious food, promoted mustaches (the only facial hair allowed at byui) and on weekends it was also a concert hall for local musicians and "Mormon famous" singers. They were also famous for their Pie Shakes. Which is an ice cream milkshake they make that they actually put an entire slice of pie into. Yummy right? (Side note, their burgers and their fries and fry sauce were my #1 pregnancy craving when I was pregnant with Justin)
The time arrived for Derek and I to have our Sammys date. We had messaged each other on skype during the week. Just typical back and forth, how was your day? What classes do you have? Boring old stuff. I was eager to show Derek how great these pie shakes were, and maybe redeem myself from our previous encounter, and I excitedly waited for him to come to my dorm to pick me up after he finished his classes for the day. He called me and tally me he was on his way, so I excitedly grabbed my purse and ran out to meet him. As I looked to the east, towards the street expecting him to drive up in his junky old pickup truck, I was surprised when I heard him call from behind me. I waved, and waited for him to get closer then I asked him where he parked.
"Oh I didn't park, I walked here. My car wouldn't start."
"That's ok we can take mine".
I walked him over to my car, luckily it wasn't a mess, we got in, and I tried to start it. I tried, because it wouldn't start. My car which was super dependable, and had never given me a bit of trouble suddenly wouldn't start! I was flabbergasted! What were the chances that both of our cars would break down? I had been eager to get in the car and get to sammys so I could put food in my mouth because honestly, this date was t going so well already. We were having a hard time talking. Our conversation was shallow and stunted, because we were both feeling a little uncomfortable (understandably after I revealed my crazy) in stunned silence I continued to turn the key in my ignition, but nothing happened. There were no other people around with cars to give me a jump.
It was a beautiful day out, one of the last warm summer days before fall hit in full force. I suggested to Derek that we could walk. It wasn't far. Before we even started walking I immediately regretted wearing new shoes. Because I knew what kind of pain I was setting myself up for. I also, misjudged the distance from my apartment to the diner. My feet hurt,mand we had a long way to walk....you would've thought I would have a miserable time on that date. But something happened. While Derek and I were walking, just walking and talking something changed. The awkwardness shifted, we talked about more meaningful things (don't ask me what. I have no clue). Our conversation becMe easy. It was genuine, we weren't trying to impress each other, we stopped trying to be cool, and we just actually got to know each other. No more pretenses, no more annoying Vanilla Ice, no ore griping internally about how short he was, I just stopped and enjoyed the conversation.
Funny thing, we passed some friends of his on our walk and as soon as he saw them, Derek's walk shifted and became more of a swagger. He stopped to talk to them, aaaaand welcome back Mr. Ice! Then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped again once we got back to walking and talking just the two of us. I think I gave him the sideways wrinkled brow look that says, "....what?"
When we finally got to sammys, the pressure came rushing back as soon as we walked in the door. This suddenly felt like a formal date again, and the pressure was on to be dainty and dignified while I slurped a liquified chocolate mint pie through a straw. It's harder than it seems. Since I set up the date, I had decided that I would pay for myself. But when I tried to pay, Derek insisted that he pay for mine as well. Points for Derek!
I was surprised that my feelings for Derek, once contempt and annoyance, were beginning to change! I actually liked this guy! I actually was starting to not mind the height difference so much. It was a nice change to wear comfortable flats on a date than toe crushing stiletto heels that made me totter back and forth and take clip clopping tiny steps. When I got Derek away from other people, and he stopped with this super fly white guy pretense he was actually a really awesome person! I found myself becoming more attracted to him, and this is just in a couple hours you guys. I went from being unsure, to thinking, ok, yeah, maybe I do like this guy.
But, and this may be totally weird and ridiculous to some people, but the highlight of this whole thing actually came for me after we got back to my apartment. Ok it doesn't sound weird yet, but wait. You'll see.
We got back to my apartment and we were just hanging out in there with my roommates, (and some guy that Alice was dragging along for the week) just talking laughing, hanging out. Totally chill. I was enjoying it, but I could tell Vanilla himself was creeping back up again, and I was getting tired of it. Then there was a tiny knock on our door. The door was already open, but from the angle Derek was at, he couldn't see who was there.
It was Avery, our RA's 3 year old daughter. In her adorable, tiny little girl voice she said, "um, can I, um, can, can I, please, um, have some pretzels?" In the middle of talking to someone else Derek's head turns straight to the door as soon as he heard that sweet little girl. "Oh my goodness!" He said, "who is that?!" He leapt from the couch to the door and excitedly fawned over Avery and her adorableness, asked if he could give some of our pretzels to her (of course yes!) and then started playing with her by showing her magic tricks, listening to her talk about little girl jibber jabber and I was just captivated. Dad material. Heck yes. Points for Derek!
In that exact moment I thought to myself, "This man will be such a wonderful father." In that moment, I knew I liked Derek. I knew that he would be a wonderful father, and I briefly was able to picture a life with him. I know that may sound strange, overly anxious, whatever. But I was always taught that if you can't see yourself marrying this person, there is no reason to date them, so that was a question I would always ask myself. With any guy. What would it be like to be married to this man? With Derek, I liked what I saw. I liked his potential. I liked his true personality. I liked him.
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