our story [part 3]

Read Part 2 here.


The next time I remember seeing Tim was at a church fireside.  He was with his friend, Jason, and as they approached they both went in for a quick hug.  I was wearing heels, and I remember thinking, as I leaned down for Tim’s hug, how short he was.  In reality, he’s the same height as me, but with heels on, he seemed much shorter.

After some small talk, Tim asked, “Did you tell your family you met me down here?”

No, I forgot about you as soon as I left, I thought. “No, I forgot to mention it,” I said.

Tim’s roommate, Blake, interrupted with an invitation for me and my roommate, Katie, to go over to their house and play games.  After some deliberation, we accepted and soon headed over to their house.  There was quite a group of people there, and once again, apart from the occasional sarcastic comment, Tim hardly said anything.

I went over to their house a couple of times after that, and each time, Tim would stay in whatever room I was in, but keep mostly to himself.  One time, when we were watching something on tv, he came and sat on the couch next to me and started doing his homework.  He made a few sarcastic comments about the show we were watching, to which I happily replied with equally sarcastic remarks, but other than that, he stayed mostly silent.

A week or two later, Katie and I headed out to one of the service projects she was planning at Feed My Starving Children.  During the drive, she looked down at her phone at an incoming text message and informed me that Jason and Tim were going to be there.

“Oh okay,” I said, not really thinking about it too much.

Once we got there, the lead volunteer asked for two male volunteers to help carry boxes throughout the event.  Tim and Jason were strangely silent.  Eventually two men volunteered and we were told to divide ourselves into different stations.

As Tim and Jason followed Katie and me to a particular station, I realized that they’d failed to volunteer because they wanted to be at the same station as us.  In fact, Tim walked right over beside Katie and me, and once again he started making sarcastic comments and teased us the whole way through.  But he was more animated than I had ever seen him.  He’s a fun guy, I thought.

Here we are.  I am in a yellow shirt right behind the girl in the black shirt.  

Tim’s face is mostly hidden but you can see him in the very back.

Afterward, I got the distinct impression that Tim and Jason were following me around the gift shop at Feed My Starving Children.  I joked with them about a few of the items, and invited them to come to frozen yogurt with a group of us in Tempe.  They replied in the affirmative without any hesitation.

The group spent a very long time sitting at the tables outside Yogurtland.  We all talked and laughed and joked about all kinds of things, but nothing in particular.  One by one, people started going home, but once again, Tim and Jason hung around.

“I’m not even tired yet!” I said.

“Me either!” Tim said enthusiastically.  [He tells me now that he was exhausted but that he wanted to keep spending time with me.]

I suggested that the four of us go back to mine and Katie’s condo to watch Meet the Robinson’s, which I had never seen.

A few minutes after we got there, Katie headed up to our bedroom to sleep, and a few minutes after that, Jason fell asleep on the couch.  That left only Tim and I awake.

We continued laughing and joking and ate the occasional otter pop.

Tim told me that as he and Jason drove home that night, he told Jason that he was interested in me, after which Jason once again tried to discourage him by reminding him about my missionary.  He also told me that he’d really wanted to ask me out the next day, but that he’d had the distinct impression to wait for a while.  

And it’s a good thing he did.


Continue with Part 4.