Love Story: Part 4

Over the next few weeks, Adam and I became "official." I don't know that there was ever really a talk (I've recently become familiar with the term DTR - Defining The Relationship), though if there was, it wasn't too important because we just knew. As I told you before, things were different with Adam from the beginning.

I kept having this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that this was too good to be true, Adam was too good for me. It wouldn't work.

The first time I went to his house, I was in awe. His family lived on a farm in this amazing log cabin home that his dad built, complete with a skywalk across the living room. Adam's basement bedroom was actually two connected rooms, so he basically had his own private living room (and he had an interesting way of decorating it). He had a pool table, two pet doves, a rock-climbing wall in a barn, a silo that you could repel off of, a four-wheeler, two boats, a hot tub, a dog named Leia, and a really sweet green Jimmy with two white racing stripes. He taught me about Star Wars and Froto from Lord of the Rings, he made me watch the movie Tombstone...things I could've cared less about. But when Adam was interested in something, so was I.

Aside from the materialistic, Adam was the most generous, caring, romantic, sweetest, cutest, handsomest, good-looking, God-loving 18-year old I knew.

This was too much for the 16-year-old me. I'd never known anyone like Adam before. I'd never felt like this about anyone before.

That nagging voice kept getting stronger. I just knew that Adam was too good for me, and I started trying to figure out what exactly would be the demise of our relationship. Because I knew there would be one. This was too good to last. Plus, every other relationship I'd had ended in a break-up, so I was sure this one would too. Who finds the love of their life at 16? But I was determined to enjoy it while it lasted. For some reason, he seemed to like me. A lot.

On one of our first dates, we went furniture shopping. I don't really remember what we were thinking. We weren't looking to buy anything (we were teenagers...), but we went to multiple furniture stores in Wichita and walked around, tried out couches, and laughed the whole time. Driving around, I was so impressed by how well Adam knew Wichita. We were both from small towns, and the most exposure I'd had to the big city was when my mom drove me to Towne East mall. We only ever came to Rock Road. That was it. But Adam knew where everything was. I found that extremely attractive. :)

It was at one of these furniture stores, where it finally happened. We'd collapsed on a sofa, one of hundreds that we'd sat on that day, and Adam grabbed my hand. My heart stopped. I hadn't been expecting it like I had the first date night at my house. I was all fluttery. After that, we couldn't stop holding hands. We'd hold hands as we were sitting, standing, talking, not talking, walking, even if one of us was in front of the other and it was super inconvenient, we just couldn't let go. It was wonderful.

Adam took three (long) weeks to kiss me.

I'm glad we took it slow, but man, was I tired of waiting. Apparently, I intimidated him. :)

We'd spent the evening at my house, most likely watching movies or hanging out and talking. I walked him outside to say goodbye. My parents were the loving kind (I can see that now, it just seemed plain inconvenient back then) who enforced curfews on their teenage kids. My curfew on week nights was 10pm. This was a week night. So it was right around 10pm that I walked Adam out. We stood by his car, talking. We hugged. And hugged.

And hugged.

I was standing on his feet facing him because I didn't have any shoes on, and it was early December. My arms were around his neck. Our faces were inches away from each other. And we just talked.

And hugged.

Finally. After 45 minutes. 45 minutes where neither of us were thinking of anything else.

He kissed me.

My heart jumped out of my chest. It just felt right. He could've asked me to marry him right there, and I would've said yes. Holy moly. I finally kissed Adam! Wowowowowow.

Remember how I told you that I wasn't a huge fan of kissing boys? Well, that all went out the window.

I went inside after lots of smiles and more hugging, and my parents were a little peeved that I'd come in 45 minutes after curfew. I didn't care...I was floating. They were both in bed, and I remember talking to them for a couple of minutes before I went to my own room. I thought it was so funny that they had no idea what just happened to me. Because really, what had just happened...had changed my life.

The next kissing story is quite hilarious. Adam probably thinks I'm crazy for telling you all this, but it's good to laugh at yourself, right?

As New Year's Eve came closer, my thoughts of getting to kiss Adam at the stroke of the New Year became more frequent. We still hadn't kissed much more passionately than a goodbye peck, and I was ready for a little more (we'll keep it PG, my mom reads this...so does his).

Here's the kink: I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out on December 27.

You know the swelling that accompanies that surgery? And the not-being-able-to-open-your-mouth? Yeah, so, that wasn't a good thing.

A quick side story: I'd heard a rumor that if you eat pineapple the day before you get your wisdom teeth taken out, you won't have as much swelling. So the night before the surgery, Adam was at my house and we were in the basement, and I was eating pineapple, which I hate. Adam, in one of his sweetest moments, told me (in complete seriousness) that he wished he could eat it for me so I wouldn't have to do something that made me so uncomfortable. It was the most thoughtful thing. AND, when I got home from my surgery the next morning, Adam had come and gone to my house, leaving a teddy bear, a rose, and a card on the pillow of my bed. I just want to hug him right now because of how sweet he was, but he's not home. :)

Back to the story.

I spent the first half of that New Year's Eve with my friends in Newton. I was on edge, waiting for the time I could leave and drive the 20 minutes to Adam's house. I convinced my friend Chelsea to come with me, even though she didn't know Adam very well and hadn't met any of his friends. When we got to Adam's farm, they had a big bonfire going. We stood around it, watching some of the guys with pyromaniac tendencies jump over the fire. Real impressive stuff. Note the sarcasm.

Finally it was nearing midnight.

I didn't want an audience for our sure-to-be-awkward New Year's Eve kiss, so with giggles from the crowd, I drug Adam off behind one of the houses on their farm. We were among the evergreen trees in the moonlight. Distant voices in the background, most likely calling out to us, making fun of us. Gotta love your friends... There was a lot of staring into each other's eyes and nervousness going on. Then we just went for it.

I don't know what he thought, but to me, it was magical.

Mom, stop reading here. :)

I could only open my mouth like half an inch, if that! Stupid wisdom teeth. To this day, I still don't know how that kiss ever worked. But it did. And it was good. Real good.

To be continued...