The Next Step

It was already too late, I was in love with Chris and there wasn't much I could do about it. I've always been the kind of person that has been unable to keep my feelings to myself. If I don't like you.... you will CERTAINLY know about it, same goes for if I do like you or in Chris's case... love you. I had to tell him, but I was afraid that if I said "I love you" to him he wouldn't say it back and I'd be left with a sinking feeling of hurt. I had been in a situation not to shortly before I fell for Chris where that exact scenario happened and it kind of scarred me. So what I decided to do was leave a message for him on AIM. I put a whole bunch of lyrics to love songs, can't remember which ones, and highlighted certain letters in certain words. Altogether the highlighted letters spelled "I love Chris" that way if he didn't say anything back I could trick myself into thinking maybe he didn't see it or maybe he didn't realize what it said. I walked away from the computer for hours, ate dinner, watched TV, spent time with my family, etc. I'm not sure exactly how long I waited, but I was surprisingly patient, I didn't want to come back and see nothing. But a few hours later, I came back and to my delight I found a similiar message to me saying "I love Mindy" and that was that. Now we had to make it official, but first I had to come back home from New Jersey.

Accidentally in Love

There were some complications involved in Chris and I getting together. I was engaged at the time and he was living with his girlfriend. These problems didn't seem like problems at the time since we had just planned on being friends. We hung out a lot, going to clubs, going out to movies, talking etc... and before you know it I kissed him. Here's where things get complicated. I knew that I couldn't, in good conscience, stay with the guy I was with at the time, so I ended it. I went home to New Jersey for the summer hoping that time apart would help with my confusion. I had convinced myself that I didn't have feelings for Chris, he was just a friend. It wasn't until I was in Virginia and was gushing about him to my cousin and she replied "Girl, you are so in love with him." I replied with my usual "No way! He's my friend, that's just weird." but deep inside I knew what she had said was true. I was in love with him, and I had to tell him and hope he felt the same way.

Good Friends

Last time we left off, Chris and I didn't really speak. However, our friendship blossomed when he invited me over his apartment for a party. We started bonding over a dumb discision I had made that night. I was sort of, at the time, dating a married man and Chris wanted to distract me from that relationship. He began inviting me over, a lot and I (without realizing it) began to look forward to us having the same shift at Ruby Tuesday. We spent hours on end just talking and before long, we became very good friends. But it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Meeting the Man of my dreams

So, my sister started a blog documenting her pre-engagement and then marriage to my brother-in-law. I thought it was a really cute idea and thought I'd like to document my romance with my boyfriend. I'm starting from the very beginning, the day we met. You know, it's funny how there are certain dates that you know and some you don't. Despite the importance of the day I met him, I don't recall even the month. We have since estimated that it must have been November of 2003. I was working at Ruby Tuesday in Gainesville, GA which was a miracle in itself. I was raised in Bayonne, NJ and it was sure chance that I ended up in that town and in that restaraunt.
I had been working there for a few months and he was new, he introduced himself as Chris. The problem was, there were already 3 Chris's working there, so opted to called him "Q" since his last name was Quinn. He would talk to me every now and then, and boy was he weird. I even thought that he might be gay and when I asked him that he laughed and said "No, I get that all the time." Needless to say, although he would soon become the love of my life.... I had NO interest in him. At least, not at first.