The story of how I met the love of my life actually begins with another girl. Her name is Kirsten, she was Haleigh's roommate (although I didn't know that at the time). I had met Kirsten one day when I was at their house visiting another friend that lived there. That Monday we had a ward social to get to know the new members that were moving into the ward for the fall semester. My roommates, Jeff and Gary, decided that it would be a fun game to see who could get the most phone numbers at the social. It was in a way trying to prove how manly we all were. I decided that my best strategy would be talking to a girl I already knew then getting the numbers of friends around them. So I started talking to Kirsten, who was talking with Haleigh. I struck up a conversation with Haleigh, decided that she was pretty cute and got her number. By the end of the night I had gotten three new numbers, being beaten by both Jeff and Gary, who had gotten four each.
A week or so later I called up Kirsten and asked her to play in the water fountains at the Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake. She agreed but on the condition that her roommate Haleigh came. I agreed to the deal and we were on our way to the Gateway to have fun. I quickly remembered that I had spoken to Haleigh before and we started talking. I remembered that she is pretty cute and that I might be interested in her but she had brought a friend to the Gateway (who I thought was her boyfriend) So I decided to just text her instead of talking a lot to her right then.
Over the next new weeks I began to text her every once in a while, because I thought she had a boyfriend. I invited her to go bowling every Tuesday for almost two months and she turned me down every time. One time she said yes and I got excited, but then she canceled last minute and ruined my night.
Right about this time I finally asked her if she had a boyfriend and she said that she didn't and I decided that it was okay to ask her out on a date. I wanted this to be a great date so I searched all types of date ideas online and asked a lot of people until I finally came up with the idea to do an "ABC" date. I asked her to come up with a random word that started with every letter of the alphabet and then I came up with an activity for each word. Over the space of 3 dates we did everything from writing our own kids book to petting a zebra and buffalo. She kept telling me that she didn't want a boyfriend and we were "just friends" but I thought that if I was nice and she kept on having fun that over time she would realize that I wasn't such a bad guy and we might date. I thought a lot about her because she wouldn't kiss or cuddle with someone that she wasn't dating, and I thought that was pretty cool. While I was taking her out on dates there were also two other boys that were doing the same thing. Haleigh's friend Kelsey told me that Haleigh had said that she didn't really like me as more than a friend, and that she was kinda playing me and these other boys all at the same time. So I decided that I wasn't going to be one of her pawns and just stopped talking to her and texting her. We started winter break not long after that and we didn't talk for more than a month. She says that she had gotten a new phone and didn't have my number while I say that if she wanted to talk that she could have facebooked me. Either way we didn't talk for quite some time.
One day I was sitting in my religion class and I was bored. So I started flipping through my phone and I came across her number, realized that I hadn't talked to her in a while, and decided to send her a text. She responded and we started to talk a little about our winter break. A day or so later I got a text from her asking if I wanted to go on a roadtrip with her and a few of her friends. I wasn't sure about where we were going or who I was going with but I was interested. I wanted to spend some more time with her but I was concerned about missing work and missing homework time. After some talking and persuading I called my boss and told him that I needed the weekend off and I told them I was going. That turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I LOVED that weekend! I felt like a little kid again, going out in the world on a whim and just doing whatever we wanted. I took this as an opportunity to be as nice as I could to Haleigh and tried to help her as we climbed up rocks, mostly so I had an excuse to hold her hand. I really enjoyed myself and also decided that I was going to give her another chance. We started talking and going out on dates again. After a few weeks more we had gotten pretty close and were pretty good friends.
One day everything changed. I remember it like it was yesterday. Previously Haleigh had never really been flirty with me and never really touched me much. But one day she just completely flipped. She was laughing at all my jokes, touching my arm, basically giving me all the signs that she was interested. I couldn't believe my eyes! I even texted Kelsey and asked her what happened and why she was being so flirty with me. By the end of the day we had been together basically all day and were tired. We went back to her house and laid down for a nap. We cuddled a little and then after a while I asked her if she wanted to be my girlfriend, and she said yes. I was so surprised that I asked her, really?!? That night I took her out to dinner and we watched a movie, I was on cloud nine. She made me the happiest man alive that night.
