4 Years Ago Today, Part 3

If you missed the first parts of my love story, start here.

Tuesday was well underway, and after a great morning training session I made my way to the dinning hall for lunch. The line to get in made its way all the way down the corridor of the student center. Once inside, the room was packed full with tables and people. I made my way directly to the salad bar, figuring to gather all my food before finding a table to sit at.

With my computer bag again slung over my shoulder, I began gathering the preliminary lunch items: tray, silverware, plate…. As I began layering salad ingredients onto my plate several kids rushed past me in the crowded aisle. I didn’t give them much thought until my bag got very heavy. I turned, expecting to see one of those kids pulling on my bag. What I saw took me by surprise. It was him! That same guy I’d met Friday. And he’d been pushing down on my bag, deliberately making it heavier. He obviously had no idea that it was heavy enough on it’s own.

He never stopped walking, but now continued on, smiling at me on his way by. “You’re a trouble maker, aren’t you?” I asked him smiling back at him and the bizarre situation I’d found myself in.

Walking backward now, continuing past me toward the main food lines, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Get me back.” With that he turned and was gone, lost in the crowds of people.

I stood there shocked, the line behind me growing ever longer. I can’t do that, I thought to myself. I don’t FLIRT with guys I don’t know.

Whatever he was up to, it was working. I went from never giving him a second thought, to thinking almost exclusively about him for the next 24 hours. You see, though I didn’t FLIRT with guys I didn’t know, I wasn’t about to back down from this apparent dare either. If this was one of those “pick on all the girls” kind of guys, I needed to figure out what to do to poke back at him. I just didn’t know what.

To be continued…

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Part 4