The first call {part three-final}

Read part one  and part two

6 days go by since the first call.

I’m swept up in work but have also been consumed by thoughts of calling him. Each day that goes by, my nerves win out and I can’t bring myself to call.

By day 6, I’ve mustered enough courage to hold the phone in my hand with his number in the other. I stare at it for a good 5 minutes before finally punching the numbers in and hitting send.

My heart is pounding, my palms are sweating as it rings and then; he answers.

”Hi, this is Emily.”
’Who?’
”Emily. We spoke last week. How are you?”

I’m silently panicking. He doesn’t remember who I am?! Why did I call!?

And then my heart calms and I can’t help but smile as he explains that I sound nothing like I did before, not recognizing that it was me.

I was no longer sick. The man voice was gone. It was now, just me. As he tells me he likes this voice much better, I begin to relax into what was becoming an easy conversation between the two of us.

After over an hour goes by, he invites me to see the Blue Angels in San Francisco with him. It was not my idea of a first “meeting” since we’d be driving 2 hours away together, and I started to get nervous.

But knowing this, he suggests we meet in a neutral location at the midway point for us both, the weekend before. We agree upon The Olive Garden in Modesto. Directly off the highway, a very busy restaurant, an easy first meeting place. It was perfect.


via Olive Garden

We get off the phone and I sat there thinking what could this possibly become? I’m about to go on my first date…er... meeting, ok, date with a man in years. I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all myself that this wasn’t a date. Could this possibly be the man God wants me to be with?

The first thing I knew I needed to do was conspire with my sister. She lived the closest to the restaurant, only 15 minutes away and I needed to stay at her place in order for this to work.

And that meant letting her in on this little secret I’d been keeping from everyone. That I going to meet a man I met on a Christian dating website.

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The first call {part two}

Read part one here.

The phone rings. I let it ring the appropriate 2 rings to have the caller i.d. come up to be sure it’s him.

And it is.

I take a deep breath and say hello.
via

We begin talking, asking and answering each other’s questions. As I hear him talk more and more I begin to relax with the sound of his voice. It’s a nice voice. Manly, yet gentle. He has a sweet southern accent that I’m finding adorable. I continue to ask him questions just so I can hear it more.

We don’t let the fact that I’m sick or that my voice is deeper than his get in the way of us talking and laughing for hours.

As the hours go by, and we get more and more comfortable with each other; he asks if I’d want to meet.

I sit there frozen.

”Like a date?” I ask completely petrified of the possibility.

I catch him off guard with this question and he tells me it doesn’t have to be if I didn’t want it. We could simply meet up, at a single location, where there might be food and drinks.

I sigh a huge sigh of relief. “Ok, I could do that.”

He knows I haven’t been on a serious date in years and understands he has to go slow with me.

I remember at that point, that I’m working at another facility for 2 1/2 months and won’t know my schedule yet, not to mention I’ll only have my cell and I hadn’t yet given him that number.

As we near the end of our 3 hour conversation, he tells me to call him once I get settled in at the other facility.

The ball is in my court. I can either call him in a few days or let this all die within the 2 1/2 months I’ll be gone.

We say goodbye and that following Sunday, I pack my bags and drive to the other facility.

6 days go by since that first call.

Read part three here

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The first call {part one}

I can barely breathe, and it’s not just because I’m sick. I’m impatiently sitting on my couch with my phone sitting next to me waiting for this man to call.

A man I’ve physically never met before. A man I just gave my phone number to, while IM-ing 10 minutes earlier.

Emails with pictures have been exchanged back and forth for 2 months, IM-ing for 1 month; as we get to know each other more and more. We’re going back and forth and he suggests this night, that he call me. My palms get sweaty. I quickly type I’m sick and not sure it’s a good idea, since my voice is gone.

He assures me he doesn’t mind. Yet, I stress again that I lost my voice and joke that I sound like a man. He writes, ‘haha’ and again says it won’t bother him.

I give him my number and say, ‘give me 10.’
via

I’m nervously sitting there staring at my blank tv wondering what he’ll sound like. If he’ll be as interesting as his emails or as funny. Wondering if he’ll like me, find my voice too deep, not mattering it’s because I’m sick, or find me too sarcastic.

I think back to the first email he ever sent me and how after reading it, I walked to the mirror and stared at myself feeling butterflies in my stomach from just his words alone. And wonder, how, with not even knowing what he looked like, his words could effect me in such a way. Realizing that this feeling hadn’t been felt for anyone in years. Then suddenly…

The phone rings.

Read part two here.

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