Accidentally in Love

Eleven years ago this weekend, my husband accidentally asked me out on our first date. Yes, you read that correctly – ACCIDENTALLY. Being the person of above-average intelligence that he is, however, he DID refrain from mentioning that particular fact to me for, oh, well, several years. Sometime well after we were safely married. Apparently the story is this: his question of “so, what are you doing this weekend?” was meant to be just random conversation between us. As if he hadn’t become well aware of the fact that my social life at that point was down to just a bare minimum, often consisting of hanging out at my grandparents (which I enjoyed and deeply miss doing, by the way). And maybe that was the answer he was expecting. As opposed to the expectant, “Nothing, why?” that he got from me.

Have to interject a note here – every time we hit this “anniversary” of life, I am completely shocked to re-discover how short the time is between the day we met and our first date. Really, I promise, if you’d asked me back then, I’d have said we’d known each other quite a while. Nope. Five weeks. That’s it. But five weeks is an eternity in middle school. Even if you’re the teacher. Especially if you’re the teacher. Anyway, on with the story.

So I tell him I’m free this weekend (like every other weekend, HELLO, where have you been?) when he realizes (his words, not mine) “Oh, crap, now she’s expecting me to ask her out.” Like I said – above-average intelligence!

Another note: when I heard this story the first time, it didn’t matter how long we’d been married, it did not give me any warm fuzzies. You didn’t MEAN TO ASK ME OUT???? (In fact, I might have said that to him. Maybe kind of loudly.)

But to his credit, after he figured out that I was probably waiting to hear something along the lines of “wanna go see a movie?” he did, in fact, finish the conversation correctly. We did go see a movie – For Love of the Game, actually, a somewhat appropriate choice considering that he was coaching softball at the time, and I was faithfully attending – and sweating through – every home game in the hopes that SOMETHING would develop (seriously – the longest five weeks of my life!). Followed by conversation that kept us up half the night. Followed by an invitation to Sunday dinner, after which he says he called and un-invited all his friends that were supposed to come that Sunday, so he could have me all to himself that afternoon. For the sake of our happy marriage, I choose to believe that part of the story. Imagining him calling his group of friends and telling them about me and that he was just going to cook dinner for me does sort of make up for the “accidentally” part of the story.

It’s probably a good thing for us that this “anniversary” lands just before the beginning of basketball season. It’s a good reminder, right before the desert-land of relationships that is the middle of a coach’s season, of the blessing that our relationship is. Unplanned by us, blessed by God. And a good excuse for a hot date…the best one I’ll get between now and March. J