My Last (and Best) First...

52 Gems of Reflection, #44

I think one of my favorite dates with my husband (before we were married) was our first date.

When we first met, he was working full-time as a financial advisor for Primerica, so his days were pretty full with appointments and meetings.

He called me the morning of our date apologetically admitting that he had double-booked his evening. He said he had a short meeting he had to attend at the office, but didn't want to cancel our date, so he begged me to come with him to the meeting, and offered to take me to dinner anywhere that I wanted to go to make it up to me.

I didn't know this at the time, but he admitted to me later that he was sweating bullets thinking I was going to make him take me to some expensive restaurant - like Benny Hannas or something. Haha. I think I stole his heart when I told him I just wanted to go to Olive Garden. To this day, it's one of our go-to date night dining preferences. Maybe we like it so much because it takes us back to our roots as a couple. Hehe. ;)

So yeah, we met at Olive Garden for dinner where we actually saw each other for the first time in person. A quick side note here: for those of you who didn't already know, my husband and I were introduced through a friend of mine who kinda stalked him on MySpace. lol. She had been browsing through profiles of LDS guys in Vegas trying to find a nice guy for me (apparently, I was sucking at the dating thing, and she thought I needed a little nudge. Bahahaha) and she kept landing back at his profile. Apparently, she sent an e-mail to him and to one other guy inquiring about their willingness to be set up on a blind date, but Zachary responded first. Lucky me. It must have been fate. ;)

Anyway, we ate some yummy food at Olive Garden and talked a little bit, then left there to go to the meeting at his office, which turned out to be an opportunity night meeting with his entire base shop, Regional Vice President, and a bunch of potential new recruits. It kind of became the running joke later that Zachary had had the "cojones" to bring me (on a first date, no less) to an op-night meeting. I actually had a really good time, though. It kind of gave me some insight into what it is that he did, allowed me to meet some really cool people that he was working with, and there were even some funny moments that gave me a good laugh. His boss even said that I was "a keeper" for being such a champ and braving the meeting on our first date. ;)

After the meeting, it was getting pretty late and I wanted to get Madison home and into bed, so I picked her up from the babysitter and met Zachary back at my house. After putting Madison to bed, Zach and I sat up watching Whale Rider and talked until like 2:00a.m. (and yes, I had to work the next morning. lol).

We had such a good time though, and we got along really well. When it came time for him to leave my house, I really had a strong feeling that he was fighting the urge to kiss me when it was just our first date. I had already made the decision, though, that I was not going to kiss him until I knew him a little better, but I didn't want him to think that he had struck out completely (hehe), so as he started to walk away from my apartment, I told him to wait so I could give him a hug. It was really sweet, and I could tell that the gesture satisfied his curiosity as to whether or not the date was successful. ;)

He left my house that night, picked up his twin brother and they left immediately for Salt Lake where they would be staying for a week with his sister to spend Christmas with her and her family. She told me later (after we were married) that she was really concerned that he was going to scare me away because the entire time he was in Utah, he kept talking about this "new girlfriend" and how excited he was about the relationship. I had to laugh, because we had only been on one date at that point and hadn't even kissed yet. Haha. That is my husband in a nutshell though - a boy at heart who absolutely cannot suppress his enthusiasm about things that excite him. ;)

Anyway, we talked a few times while he was in Utah, and I guess he was really anxious to get back to Vegas to see me because he left early (on Christmas day). And yes - he did finally get that first kiss when we saw each other again. But that is another story. ;)

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52 Gems of Reflection