How we met

Before the Beginning

October 8th, 2009 | Author: Joy

When I met Rob, we were both going through times of intense change. I had just left college when the bar that I worked at closed abruptly and I was left without the means to pay my tuition. (I could’ve asked my Mom and Dad to help but I was far too stubborn for that, and really that’s a story for another time.) I had lived on a friend’s sofa for two weeks before moving in with my friend James to be his roommate. I was trying to figure out what my next move was, but for the time, I was renting my friend James’ spare room and working at a temp agency.

Rob was one of James’ best friends and fairly recently divorced. He had dated someone after his wife but the relationship ended abruptly and tragically, so Rob had kind of withdrawn from life unsure if he ever wanted to let someone in again. In retrospect we were both sort of lost and drifting, and almost from the moment that we met each other, we clung to one another.

James and Rob were going out one night and I was curled up in my room with a book, when there was a knock on my door. When I invited the knocker in, I expected to find James or his girlfriend, and

instead there was a tall handsome man I had never seen before. Rob was not only tall, he had broad muscular shoulders that made him appear to take up most of the doorway. His smile was slightly crooked, and his hazel eyes were twinkling with mischief.

“Hi, I’m Rob, James, his girlfriend, and I were going to go out and I wanted to see if you wanted to come with us,” he said and he laughed a nervous little laugh at the end that made me smile.

There was something about the boyish laugh from the strapping man that was absolutely charming. I agreed to meet them in the front of the house in a few minutes and I proceeded to get dressed and ready to go out.

When we got to the bar, I was having second thoughts. It was a bar that was very popular with the college students and even worse, it was college nights. I was going to be confronted with a number of classmates who would want to know what had happened and why I was in classes this semester. I dreaded having to explain over and over again that I was out of money and unsure what I was going to be doing next, however I peeked over at Rob sitting across from me in the backseat of James’ car and he was talking so animatedly about something that I found myself smiling despite the butterflies in my stomach.

The night was a blur of people and loud music, I only remember that at one point I turned around and felt my stomach fall to my feet when I was nose to nose with my ex-boyfriend. Just the person that I would like to say something positive to, about where I was and what I was doing, and here he was with a beautiful girl on his arm and I had nothing to say. I’ve never asked what Rob saw on my face, but a moment later he was next to me, with his arm around my waist, introducing himself as my boyfriend and just like that he was my boyfriend.

Is it any wonder that in the weeks that followed, I fell in love with him? He was tall and handsome, and he showered me with crooked smiles and generous gifts. We started to see each other a little bit here, and a little bit there until we were together more than we were apart. When we were separated we were like giddy, giggling teenagers talking on the phone all hours of the day and night.

The story I want to share with you, may not be a love story, but there’s no doubt that it’s a story that starts with love.