The Story of Us: He calls, I check my list

I'm not sure my family really took my announcement seriously, and life went on as normal. I hovered over my phone, waiting for anything from E.

Weeks later, my phone buzzed a text message while I was on my lunch break. My heart leaped.

I looked at the screen and his name blinked up.

Opening the message, I took a deep breath and read "Would it be alright if I called sometime? ;-)"

stomach flutters. cheek flush. a smile

I wanted immediately to respond with a resounding "YES!" (finally!) but he had played a hard-to-get game and it was his turn in the hot seat. So I kept it cool, waited for a few minutes, and responded: "hmm, sure. that will work."

(I know, I'm such a player. It made so much sense at the time)

I never let my phone leave my sight, or turned the ringer off. A week later, I had plans with my friend, Mocha, to celebrate her belated birthday with a surprise helicopter ride her parents had won in an auction.

Of course, E calls right as we're about to leave. We chatted for a few minutes, and I told him I had to go to get on a helicopter--I don't think he believed me!

The next day we got to talk. It was a long, meaningful, but fun conversation that finally gave me confidence that we could be a 'thing.' One of those late into the night conversations where we just clicked. I kept running over my mental list of must-have's and couldn't find a thing missing. I had determined to be pickier this time around, but (as cheesy as it sounds), he really was a perfect match.

But there were still four weeks before school started...and do you think the phone rang again? I can laugh now, but then it was a torturous wait.