One Year Ago… Part 22

After his grandma’s funeral, he had to leave to go back to Kentucky. On Friday he sent me the news that he was going to give his 2 weeks notice and he was moving home. I was super excited but I was worried. We are from SW MO, from a town that is one of the cheapest areas to live in in the country. He made good money working on the Army base… and he was choosing to give that up and move here. Here where he probably wouldn’t make what he did down there, not at least without a college education. My fears set in.

I had even somewhat contemplated trying to possibly move down there. I wasn’t as worried about me finding a job, even though jobs are hard to come by, facts are facts in this economy, but I have a teaching degree, I have experience waitressing, I have typing skills, etc. Not to say he doesn’t have skills. He was a computer techy, and those jobs come with wanting degrees. I was worried. Then he said the words that made me smile. I’m going to go back to school.

Even those words didn’t completely make me at ease because he still had a daughter to care for but I wasn’t nearly as worried. I can’t tell you what came over me but I wasn’t completely worried about it all, just a slight fear. I just knew we’d have some tough times ahead of us but let’s face it, I was head over heels for this guy, bring it on, we’ll face it together.

Saturday brought on dinner club. I wasn’t about to ask him to come home just to go to dinner with me, that’s a long drive just for dinner. Especially trying to save money so he could move home to me for good.

I had been taking a photography class with my friends Josh & Evelyn. Josh got a great idea, let’s get our friends Chris & Tiffany to pose for us and use this opportunity to practice taking shots in different locations. So Josh came by and picked me up on his way to Springfield and we rode up together. We talked about a lot of things but every time Prince Charming came up Josh instantly changed the subject. In my mind I thought, oh good, it hasn’t worked itself out yet.

We spent the afternoon taking photos and then it eventually became time to head to the restaurant. Once we got there our waitress came by asking who all was on what bill. Josh put me on his. He said it was easier for the waitress that way. Once dinner was over and the bill came, I tried to pay him for my half but he wouldn’t let me. I finally told him that I would get his some other time.

After dinner, Tiffany wanted to go to the mall to buy Chris some new jeans so we all loaded up and headed over to the mall. While at JC Penney I got bored and started wandering around. I ran across a huge sign that said something about men’s suits being on sale. PC had told me he would like a suit. So now I was at a dilemma. I wandered over the Sale suits and called him to see what size he might need. He wasn’t sure. He knew pant length but jackets he was iffy. I hated buying something without knowing for sure so eventually, I gave up and walked away. We all left Penney’s and wandered into the mall.

Well, I got the bright idea, maybe I should call my parents and see what size jacket my dad wears. It would give me somewhere to go. Of course, neither of my parents had their cell phones on them that night. So in the meantime, I started texting Kalem to see what size suit jacket he wore. He dug through his jacket and couldn’t find a size. I thanked him and that’s when my mom called. So I had her digging through my dad’s jackets to find a size. She never found a size either but she’s a seamstress and had a rough idea of what I was looking for.

We had to go back through Penney’s to go to the car so I told everyone I was running back upstairs and I’d meet back up with them in a few and I took off running through the mall. When I got back to the Sale suits, they didn’t have the size I was looking for. I was bummed. That was about the time a salesman walked up and started talking to me. He asked what I was looking for so I told him. He asked what sizes and so I started describing PC to the salesman. He eventually took me over away from the Sales suits and started showing me some other suits that were on sale. I called PC and wound up playing the middle man between him and the salesman but in the end, I found him a suit, a really nice suit at that. Oh and the real kicker, I got a coupon to use on the suit that expired that night. I got him a $200 suit for $90. Score!!

So I paid and ran down the stairs to meet back up with Josh just as the store was closing. As we got into the car and headed home “The Talk” happened. He wanted to know why he didn’t get a chance. Why all of the sudden this “mystery” guy came back into my life. Just lots and lots of questions. I told him it wasn’t something I had foreseen happening, it happened and I was happy it did. I’m sorry that things didn’t work for us but we are so different and he was more of a big brother to me and that I couldn’t see anything more happening. I didn’t want to lose a great friend and I was truly sorry. (I’m sure I worded it nicer than that but you get the gist.)

After the wonderful talk on Saturday night, our friendship was hurt slightly. I figured it would be and how do you handle those things. That’s why I hate the talk. So Tuesday night after photography class we all went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The waitress came over and asked who was on which ticket and Josh said, she’s buying mine. Well, I’m no longer in debt to him.

The next weekend PC came home. He spent a lot of time at his mother’s house cleaning out her spare room so he’d have somewhere to sleep. He brought half of his stuff home with him so that he could get the rest home in 2 weeks when he came home. We spent some time together throughout that weekend, but he focused mostly on getting the room ready so he’d have a place to live.

That Sunday that he had to go back to Kentucky was one of the hardest. I knew it would be 2 weeks until I saw him and he’d be home with me forever. I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted it to be over, I wanted him to be home, NOW. I cried myself to sleep that night.

He wasn’t planning on coming home the first week of October because he’d be moving home the next week so my mom asked me if I’d like to go to Texas with her. I used my last day of vacation and we planned on heading to Texas.

Wouldn’t you know on Tuesday, he had his last day and they let him use vacation time. He headed home for good on Wednesday. My mom found out and asked if we were still on for Texas. I said yes. His first weekend HOME and I went out of town.