it's a love story {part 3}

If you're behind on how my relationship with Russ got its start, catch up with part 1 and part 2.

Part Three - Changing Plans

It was around the beginning of November. I was sitting in the second hour of church, like I normally did. I was on one side of the room, and I glanced over at the other side of the room. At that exact moment, Russ looked back at me. 

So me, being the awkward person I am, made some kind of crazy face.

Probably something like this.

He responded by looking back in a confusion-meets-you're-so-weird! kind of expression.

And don't ask me how, but from that little exchange, I knew he and his girlfriend had broken up. It was something like . . . he looked more free. Maybe a little sad, but also glad to be free of her. 

Again, don't ask me how I got all that from our weird face exchange.

Anyways, I confirmed this suspicion with Lance (his brother) later that night, when we got together to do our planning for FHE. Lance responded, surprised, "Yeah, they broke up this week!" Am I good or what?!

Suddenly, that thought from early September floated back to me--He'd be fun to date. Only this time it was followed by another thought--And now he's available! 

Luckily for me, we had FHE weekly, so that meant I got to see and interact with him the very next day. Our group did what every normal BYU FHE group does at least once--we went hot tubbing. And--I just have to include this part--that boy looked good! Remember how I initially thought he was nerdy? Turns out he was a workout-fiend. But anyways. I didn't just spend the evening checking him out. We (many people from our group) also went to the freezing cold pool and played together. It was one of the first times I really got to interact with Russ, since he had been so loyal to his ex.

That month was filled with more fun FHE interactions. Though our group had initially been a bit disjointed, we all became really good friends starting around the beginning of October. That's why one of Russ's roommates invited the whole group to take the 30 minute drive down to his parents' home for dinner and games on a Sunday (in the middle of November). 

That day was so. much. fun. We all laughed so much! Clark's (Russ's roommate) parents didn't even eat dinner with us (I thought they would), so it was basically just our FHE group hanging out in a place with more space and better food. We laughed and ate, then laughed some more. I was hoping Russ would end up in the seat next to me (little did I know, he was hoping the same thing, but was worried because I was one of the first to get my food and sit down, and he was one of the last), and luck was on my side! He was the last one to come down, but there was still an empty seat next to me :) [In his journal, he wrote ". . . the heavenly chorus sang as I saw her and an empty chair just to her left!". . . so funny and adorable :)] 

After dinner, we played this game called "What if." To play, everyone writes down a sentence, then you switch around the papers. Then you go around the circle, and the first person says "What if [insert what's written on your paper here]." Then the next person says, "Then [insert what's written on your paper here]." Then the next person starts the next "What if" sentence. And on and on. 

Nobody knew which paper was written by which person--because we put all of our papers in the middle and then drew new ones--so we were free to write whatever we wanted. So I, being the crazy-and-aggressive-(and-slightly-weird)-dater/flirter that I am, wrote things like "Russ started making out with Ashley" to float the idea. They also made for really funny what if/then statements. I really wish I could have recorded everything that happened, because my memory doesn't serve me well enough to recount the true hilarity of that night. 

But anyways--basically the night was great.

Then there was a break for Thanksgiving, so he went home to Idaho, and I flew out with part of my family to Texas for Thanksgiving at my sister's house. Over those few days, Russ and I had more Facebook interaction than we'd ever had before. Nothing romantic. Nothing crazy. It was actually mostly just me dissing on his mustache (he grows a mustache every November [still], and I hate it. I love when he has a beard AND mustache, but a plain mustache is just not my cup of tea).

Russ with a mustache . . .

So basically, as soon as things were over with his girlfriend, he and I started interacting a lot more often. But I wasn't sure about whether or not he liked me back! I suppose I should have been more mindful of the fact that he and his girlfriend of 10 months had just broken up, but it was hard to be unsure. 

However, I discovered the crush was mutual when . . . 

To be continued, since this is already a novel! :) Check back next Wednesday for the next section :)


**ashleynicole