Lieutenant Brown, Chapter 6...

(To read Chapter 5, click HERE.)

"Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one."

~Japanese Proverb

Before our date, my sister and brother-in-law had told me I should really hold his hand at the very least. (Ster said, "If the man's going to drive all the way from Yakima, Jen, you have to make sure he knows you like him.") But like I said before, I wanted to do things the old-fashioned way, so I decided he had to make those moves first. I wanted him to take the lead on that stuff, and we hadn't done anything like that besides having the DtR. I didn't know if it was a mistake or not, and there had probably been opportunities, and maybe it was just that I chickened out. That on top of my stupid answer definitely led to some "way to screw it up" thoughts.

I realized I was an idiot. I was totally non-committal (which I hate!) and didn't really answer his question at all. And I started freaking out. So I did the first thing I could think of--called my best friend. :) I don't actually remember if I told her how much I was freaking out (I probably did), but after I felt a little more composed about the whole thing, I got out my computer and started composing an email.

I apologized for not really giving him a good answer and confessed I was afraid of saying the wrong thing, then told him how I felt, that I thought he was awesome, and I was really excited about him. I agonized over it for a little while before I finally got brave enough to hit send. Then the waiting began.

The next day I probably checked my email 5,000 times to see if he'd written me back...to no avail. Finally around lunchtime I pulled out my phone...and realized I'd missed a text from him while my phone was on silent. I nervously opened it and read: "Thanks for your email. I feel the same way." PHEW!!!!!

We talked on the phone for about 5 1/2 hours that night, about what, I couldn't tell you. Honestly, my sister said, "What could you possibly have to talk about for that long?" And I was like, "Ummm....actually, I have no idea. We just talk. About stuff. Nothing. I don't know." But you know how you have to kind of do that? Talk about nothing just to talk and get to know each other? That's what we talked about.

Wednesday night rolled around, and we were having a conversation via text (suddenly I'm a texter, I guess?), and he said, "By any chance are you watching "The Sing-Off"?" I was, so we spent the next two hours of the show texting back and forth about the a cappella groups and their song choices, etc. It was really random and fun (why we didn't just call each other is sort of beyond me, but whatever). At the end, he said, "So...Monday, same time?" I responded with, "It's a date!"

We continued to have "text dates" for the last three episodes of the show. :) (Hey, when you don't live in the same town, you have to be creative!) It was really fun, and nice to know there were a couple hours dedicated just to watching the same show, communicating with each other, and having that shared experience.

We kept texting each other and talking on the phone and emailing, just continuing to get to know one another. It was really chill and easy and I started really looking forward to getting to see him after Christmas--in fact, I was pretty bummed I had to wait so long! The weekend before Christmas he had made plans to go Christmas shopping in Seattle, which meant there wasn't really the option to see him again sooner, so waiting until after Christmas would have to be fine. Little did I know...

That Saturday night, my sister and I had a sister date to finish up our Christmas shopping, and when I got home, he texted me. He said he'd just gotten home from a family wedding and asked how my weekend was going. We chit-chatted a little, then he said, "How long do you have to work on Wednesday?"

I was confused. I couldn't figure out if he meant the Wednesday I was leaving to go to Seattle or that coming Wednesday, but why would he be asking me about that Wednesday? It didn't make sense, but he said he wanted to know how long I had to work that coming Wednesday. So I told him I'd be working short days that week and getting off early. Then came clarity.

"I don't have to work Wednesday, so I was wondering if you would want to hang out. I can come to Portland." Ummm, YES!!! :) He said, since he had time, he didn't really want to wait another week and a half to hang out, and asked if I'd be interested in going to see the new Narnia movie. It sounded like a perfect idea to me, and I told him I'd work it out and get off early. :) So we made plans to see each other a whole week earlier than I had anticipated. I was SO excited.

I started thinking about it and realized he had just asked if he could drive 6+ hours to take me to a 2 hour movie. :)

And I could hardly wait.

To be continued...

(To continue to Chapter 7, click HERE.)