Mike said I never talk about him on here (this is due to the fact that my family and friends grew sick of hearing about him and disallowed me from gushing), so I decided to write about our love story. This one is for (and about) Mike.
I have almost always been known as Steve's sister. He is two years older than me, and infinitely more popular and talkative. I was content to be in his shadow my whole life. He was a sophomore when I was a freshman in college, and this worked much to my advantage. He knew everyone, and he introduced me to everyone. He introduced me to Mike.
I was, as 90% of freshman girls are, boy crazy. I met Mike my freshman year, but I was actually interested in someone else at the time (this was back in my "dumb guy" phase--thank goodness that ended!). Sophomore year, however, I was over my freshman crush, and we began to eat lunch or dinner quite frequently with Mike. I thought he was hilarious (one of the funniest people I'd ever met), but I still wasn't really interested.
I was talking to another girl about Mike when she happened to mention that he was the biggest flirt on campus.
"Nuh-uh. He never flirts with me," I said.
"Well, you must be the only girl he doesn't flirt with then," she answered.
This bugged me because: 1. I was a pretty big flirt, and 2. I hung out with just guys so often, that a lot of them tended to think of me as "the girl who's a guy." I hated that. So the next time we had dinner with Mike, I posed him a question.
"I heard you're a flirt. How come you never flirt with me?"
My brother was appalled, but Mike didn't even blink.
"I didn't know you wanted me to."
"Well," I said. "Maybe I do."
He willingly complied. This whole exchange made my brother extremely annoyed, and he forbid me from flirting with Mike. And that is how it all began.
I was just beginning to step out from my brother's shadow, and his trying to boss me irked me. The fact that my brother didn't want me to flirt with him, irked Mike. It was perfect.
Let me tell you, Mike is one champion flirt. What started as a game (I seriously was not interested in him at all), quickly escalated--for me anyway. While I was falling madly in love, Mike still thought of me as Steve's little sister. He tells me now that he couldn't have been interested in me--I was only twelve! (I was 19, thank you very much) Everyone warned me to be careful. I assured them we were just joking around, but I was lying.
I knew he was just joking around, and I would lay awake at night wishing he weren't. Sophomore year passed and Mike grew bored with me. He finally made my brother mad enough that he forbid me from speaking to Mike at all. I could tell Mike was quickly losing interest in even talking to me, so I went along with my brother.
Over the next two years, I tried to remain friends with Mike. I no longer had the huge crush, but my stomach would still get butterflies every time I saw him. If he had bothered to flirt with me more, I probably would've been right back in love with him again. Finally I gave up. He graduated my junior year, and I barely noticed. We both had other things going on.
I came back to school senior year ready to find a guy. This was my last chance. Fall semester I started hanging out with a guy I didn't even really like. We never actually started dating, but we came close. He turned out to be pretty much a jerk. I was amazingly stupid to be willing to date a guy I didn't even have real conversations with, and that really woke me up.
I resolved that spring semester would be different. I had read The Rules (a book I recommend to any girl of dating age), and I had decided that I was not going to date anyone unless I was really, really sure. If a guy wanted to date me, he was going to have to work pretty darn hard.
I hadn't even thought about Mike for almost a year until I saw him in the VC. I had just gotten a tray of pizza with my friend Ashley when I spotted Mike walking towards me.
Surprised, I said, "Mike! What are you doing here?" Remember, he had graduated the year before.
He, being funny, turned around and walked away. I shrugged and walked the other way to sit down at a table with Ashley. I was over him; I wasn't just going to stand there looking like an idiot waiting for him. He found me a few minutes later and was friendly. He told me he'd come back for grad school. He gave me his phone number and told me to call him for dinner sometime.
After he walked away, I turned to Ashley and said, "Not gonna happen."
I did write his number down, but I never used it. A few weeks later he called me and asked me to dinner. I figured since he'd put some effort into getting my number, he actually did want to have dinner with me so I said okay.
We went to the VC, and we even sat on the good side (as opposed to the loser side) per my request. We stayed there talking until they chased us out. I knew it wasn't a date--he just needed someone to go to dinner with and he didn't have many friends left in school. It was fun though.
He once again told me to call him, but I once again didn't. He asked me to dinner a few more times, and, if I didn't already have plans, I went with him. Sometimes it was just us, and sometimes Chad or Bobby came along.
One night I went to dinner with some of my friends, and we walked past Mike and Chad. I stopped to say hey and talk for a minute. Apparently Mike had been having some bad dates recently, and had been lamenting to Chad. As I walked away, Chad turned to Mike and said, "Well, why don't you ask Liz out? She's cool. You have fun with her." (or something along those lines) Mike kinda shrugged it off, but he started thinking about it.
He called me within the next few days and asked me to dinner. We talked on the phone for at least an hour. I had no idea it was any different than the other times we'd gone to dinner, but it was different for him. Once again, we stayed at the VC talking until it closed. I got a little scared because that night, some of my old feelings started coming back.
After that, he started asking me to dinner frequently. Unfortunately, he is a procrastinator and I plan ahead. He would call two hours before dinner, but I would usually already have plans. If I did, he and Chad would sit at a table by the chicken tenders line (by this time I was sick of all cafeteria food and at three chicken tenders at every meal) and invite me and my friends to join them at their six-seater table.
Before too long, he made it clear that he wanted to date me. There were two obstacles, however. One was my brother. The other was the promise I had made to myself. We sneaked around, trying to avoid anyone who knew my brother (which was hard). Mike claimed we were dating, but I maintained that we were merely "hanging out and having fun."
Mike was worried to death that when I told my brother about us, he would tell Mike he couldn't see me. I assured him that our relationship was different now--I was older and Steve wasn't as protective. When I finally did tell him, he merely said, "So that's what you've been hiding. Well, whatever. It's your life."
All semester I prayed about our relationship, and by the end of the semester, I finally admitted with peace that we were, indeed, dating. The next Christmas we got engaged, and we got married the next summer. Now we have an adorable little baby and have been married for almost two years.
Way back in my sophomore year, my friend told me I had to face reality. Real romance isn't like the stuff you read in books, but she was wrong.
Fairy tales do come true. I found my Prince Charming.
Until...
Liz
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