Reception

Fall

Maybe there really is such a thing as finding one's soul mate. There are certainly some cases where it seems that way, and it could never be truer for the two of us. We met for the first time at school, in a choir class of all places. We were both juniors- Natalie on her way to completing a business law degree in preparation to start law school, and me working my way through an electrical engineering program. I remember watching Natalie out of the corner of my eye and thinking she was the prettiest girl ever. When the semester ended, she came up to me at the end of class on the last day and told me that she liked my voice, which surprised me, because we had never talked to each other before. I stuttered through a thank you and watched her leave out the door before I could think to do anything else. I figured I would never see her again since the school year was over and I had no way of contacting her. Little did I know that she picked to intern at the exact law firm where my dad works for the summer. I discovered this one night when my dad mentioned that one of the young new paralegals was named Natalie. After a bit more poking and prodding, I confirmed my suspicion and couldn't believe my luck. I decided to visit my dad's office that week, and to my satisfaction when I walked in, there was Natalie. She looked up, surprised to see me there. I said "Hi" in the most nonchalant way I could muster and then headed back to talk to my dad. Over the next few weeks, I found several more reasons to come back. Eventually I asked her out, and she said yes. I took her out and we talked, sang, and laughed. I thought the night went well- but apparently not well enough... After our first date, our conversations slowed and eventually stopped. Natalie had made it clear that at that point she wasn't looking for anything serious at the time, and I was forced to discard the fantasy of us dating. I knew I was a long shot to snag her, but even after we stopped talking I just could not stop thinking about her. Several months passed by like this. I took a few different girls out and tried to convince myself I like them more. It worked sometimes, but inevitably I returned to thoughts of Natalie. Many months after our first date, and almost a year after our choir class together, she surprised me by coming directly up to me one day at school. She was as beautiful as ever. She asked me if I was free to go on a date in the future and my insides gave a huge lurch. She then explained that she had a really good friend who she thought would be an excellent girl to take out. Would I like to go on a double date with her and her friend? Great. Natalie was asking me on a blind date with her friend. But still sounded fun, so I said yes. Selfishly I reasoned that she would be there too at least. Natalie later told me that her thoughts had kept wandering back to me too. And she couldn't stop thinking about how amazing she thought I was. Natalie was convinced at this point that it didn't make sense to start a relationship because she was starting law school, so she reasoned that such a great guy like me could only be perfect for her best friend, if not her. The double date was fun. I brought Natalie's friend and Natalie had someone else ask her out. We played pickleball in the park for a little while and when we went to take a break, Natalie challenged me to a one on one- even though we weren't each other's dates. We played and then we talked while we watched our dates play each other. It was so much fun. Looking back, I'm amused to realize how many sparks went off that night between me and her. Natalie's date had even captured a video of the two of us being silly and when we show it to friends, they laugh at how obvious it was that we were interested in eachother. I remember having two very different emotions at the same time: On one hand, I was on cloud 9 being able to spend time with Natalie. On the other hand, I knew she wasn't my date and that I needed to make sure to care of her friend. After that night we started texting again. It wasn't often, but every once in a while we would have a conversation about school or work or something random. During this time I tried desperately to remind myself that we were just casual friends. As the next school year ended, we had begun to talk more often. And the conversations became more and more flirty. Natalie and I both graduated, and consequently celebrated over text. I left on a senior trip to Puerto Rico, and she asked me to send back some pictures. The weekend after I got back, she asked if I'd like to come see a movie that night at the theater. I asked if she was going with anyone else, and she said no. That Saturday, we went together to a movie and got food. We talked and laughed long into the night, and though neither of us admitted it, we had just gone on our second date together. Natalie still insists that she considers this a "hang out" between two friends. The next week, I asked her out again, and she said yes. We went out a few more times over the next couple of weeks, including the night before she was to leave on her own senior trip to Europe. She had been planning this trip for a long time, and she was going to be gone for a large chunk of the summer. I kissed her for the first time that night, knowing she would have all of Europe to think of me. When she got back, I was waiting for her. Two weeks later, we started officially dating. I proposed to her at the start of summer after her first year of law school, and our wedding day is just seven short months after that. Natalie will tell you that she had to throw quite the number of bread crumbs to get me to be brave enough to ask her to be my girlfriend date. And she is probably right, because I'm sure I was stubborn enough to see right over many of them. After all, she had already said no before. However, I truly believe that no matter how many bread crumbs, or blind dates, or trips to Europe that we would have had to endure, I'm sure we would still be together. It just seems like it was destined to be that way. Now we both get to look forward together, to a brand new story- one that starts this fall.

Natalie & Daylon

Natalie & Daylon

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