Absence makes the heart grow fonder

To continue the story, future-hubby was away at college, I was beginning my junior year of high school, and the telephone was the lifeline of our relationship. I wrote to him pretty frequently, and occasionally I would get a letter back. Now, you have to understand, one of the things I loved about him (and still do) is his bizarre sense of humor. Somehow, the college he attended managed to put him in a room with two other guys who also had mental problems a unique outlook on life. So the letters I got from him were odd, to say the least. But I wasn't complaining. I still have every one of them! And when he told me about the new life form growing in their kitchen sink, or the green thing living in their closet, I just laughed and missed him all that much more.

We saw each other over the holidays, and he was my date for the Junior Ring Dance as well. My friends all thought I was nuts to be so into a guy who wasn't around most of the time. I would always point out to them that it wasn't as if anyone nearby was interested. You might not believe this, but not one guy in my high school ever asked me out on a date. Not one. Ever. And I least I wasn't salivating over some local DJ like one of my friends, as though she would ever actually go out with some 40-year-old guy!

Anyway, things were going really well, except for one major problem - massive amounts of teenage hormones. By the end of the summer, we both realized we were going to do something we'd regret if we didn't take a break from each other. We broke up.

Neither one of us was happy about it. In fact, he and his friends crashed my 17th birthday party that October and it was all I could do not to throw myself into his arms. I thought about him all the time. We stayed "broken up," though, until spring break. I can't remember where we were going, but he was driving and I was in the passenger seat. I looked over at him, he looked at me, we grabbed each other's hands, and that was it. We knew we were meant to be together. He took me to my senior prom, and we spent the summer painting houses. Well, I painted, he was the manager. We went to Denny's after work most nights because it was right around the corner from my house. One of his goofy college roommates also worked with us, and the three of us had a lot of fun hanging out.

So, what happened when I left for college in the fall, and he switched to a school in Texas? Tune in tomorrow!