(Chapter 2: cont'd)

Dates continued: fancy dates, movie dates, dinner dates, meeting-the-family dates, serious-talks dates, you name it.

There were two dates in particular that I remember as being especially significant:

Date #1 was the first time we exchanged "I love you's."

The Wednesday after making sobai pants, Jefferson called and asked if I would want to go swimming with him while his brother and dad went and played raquetball. I agreed. After a long day at school, who wouldn't want to go soak in a hot tub?

We were appropriately chaperoned by the youngest brother of Jefferson and spent the time chasing and subsequently catching each other  in the pool or soaking and chatting in the hot tub.

When Jefferson went to drop me off, we snuggled on the bench seat of the monster truck and talked...and talked....and talked....and "talked" until it was four AM! Knowing our parents were going to kill us, there was no rush to go home...really, no rush.

It was in one of those hours when Jefferson, breaking a sweet kiss, said, "I think I'm falling in love with you."


Date #2 was the one and only time we talked about getting married.

Some time later, after classes, Jefferson came and picked me up, a common practice at this time. We went and got dinner-to-go at Panda Express. We then settled in for a movie (Kung-fu Panda) on Jefferson's computer parked in a mini-van at a public park.

When the movie was over and before he moved to take me home, this question came from Jefferson:
"So, hypothetically speaking, because if we weren't speaking hypothetically this would just be awkward, if we were to get married, which temple would you want to be sealed in?"

Wait...what? Really?! I thought. Ah! Did the love of my life just say what I thought he just said? Well, answer him!

"Draper," I said.
"Really? Okay, why there?"
What followed was a long discussion of this supposedly "hypothetical situation" in which we were planning our wedding.

Needless to say, when Jefferson dropped me off at home, I was on cloud nine!