The Story of Us (Part 8)

Nate's Version:
(Part 1)
(Part 2)
(Part 3)
(Part 4)
(Part 5)
(Part 6)
(Part 7)

Tricia's Version:
(Part 1)
(Part 2)
(Part 3)

Over those next few weeks, through the end of April and most of May, Tricia and I spent a lot of time together. Bike Rides, Church, Kayaking, Family, Fast Food, Movies...through it all we were getting to know each other better, and God was teaching me patience as, beyond my ability to see and understand, He was beginning to work in Tricia's heart and mind to slowly move her toward me.

I can especially remember one perfect, May night...I was at Tricia's house, and we decided to take a walk down her street (in a very quiet neighborhood) around 11pm. We made it a few hundred yards down, and then sat down in the middle of the warm pavement and spent about two hours just talking and staring up at the stars...pure magic...

The entire time during those few weeks, as we were spending more and more time together, I was slowly working up the nerve to attempt to have "that" conversation with Tricia.

In case you've forgotten, I was incredibly shy around girls, and although I had, a few times before, thought myself to be in love with a girl or two, there was something completely different about my feelings for Tricia. And, having made mistakes with other girls, it took me a long time to figure out how and what I wanted to say. I made up my mind several times to tell her about my love for her, but I kept waiting until the perfect moment to say anything...of course, the perfect moment never came.

The stress of holding it in and knowing that I had to tell her was becoming unbearable, and finally, I made up my mind that I absolutely had to tell her...we were going to see a movie, and at some point after the movie, I was going to break the ice.

I'm a procrastinator...a seriously bad procrastinator...Tricia had even noted at some point before that night that I liked to wait until the last possible second to mention something that I'd obviously been wanting to say. That night was no different.

Literally, as we were pulling into her driveway that evening, and as she was getting ready to open the door and say "goodnight", I forced myself to say it...I think it started out with something like, "So...uh...before you go...ummm...there's something I wanted to talk with you about..."

She stopped reaching for the door and turned to look at me with what I thought was a very strange look (kind of like, "ok...I hope this isn't about what I think it's about...")

This was going to be a very interesting conversation...

Nate