Love at first... work assignment?
The story of how I met your father is not terribly interesting. We worked at the same place and he made me nervous. It was the first time in a long time that a guy had made me nervous. He'd show up and suddenly the temperature went up 500 degrees in the room, or he'd smile his charming smile and the next sentence out of my mouth made little to no sense. I always seemed to have the after thought of "why the heck did I say that?" when our conversations ended. Here he was, this intelligent, handsome, funny, Brazilian guy and I felt like I couldn't even form proper words when I was in his presence. But none of that is interesting. What IS interesting is how he conned me into our first date - although, he didn't realize that is what he had done. But his unintentional con worked! |
| Can you feel the love tonight? |
We had often chatted at the office, but it wasn't until about four or five months into me working there that we were given a project to work on together. We had made some progress, but we hadn't had many opportunities to sit down and focus on it. Our boss was out of town and due back Monday, so your father made the wonderful suggestion on a Friday afternoon that we go work on the project offsite so we could make some significant progress to present to bossman on Monday. Just us, no other co-workers to bother us with other tasks or issues. I agreed that this sounded was a good idea, and we decided that a local bar with wifi would be the most productive environment for us.
And, surprisingly, it was. We both clicked and realized that we were a great team. The ideas were flowing and the productivity was incredible. After several hours, we realized we were hungry so we grabbed a bite to eat. It was a great, productive work session and gave us the chance to get to know each other a little more. And, if you ask your dad, this was our first date. No way, buddy. Working together is definitely not a first date.
The misunderstanding and the REAL first date
The next week at work was a short week for your dad, as he was leaving for a month-long trip back to Brazil to visit his extended family. On Monday, a coworker mentioned that there would probably be a goodbye happy hour in downtown before your dad left town. On my drive home that evening, I received a call from your father, inviting me out to downtown on Tuesday night. I said yes, thinking that this was just another invite to the goodbye gathering that our coworker had mentioned to earlier that day. Your dad's response - "Great, it's a ... plan!" Literally, this was his response. I had no idea that he had just asked me on a date and there was no group happy hour planned. To be fair - I would have said yes to your father either way! I might have caught on a little sooner if he had used the traditional phrase of "it's a date."
Tuesday evening rolls around, and I head to your dad's apartment as he had suggested we ride to downtown together. We had a briefly confusing conversation about who else was going (no one!) and then it hit me. There was no happy hour - this was a date! That stinker (and also, woohoo!).
That evening was the best first date I'd ever had - and, the last first date I would ever have. We went out to a delicious dinner at a Spanish restaurant, followed by some yummy gelato and a moonlit walk on the bayfront park. Then, we finished the night with a few rounds of pool. It was romantic and fun and it felt so natural, as though we had always been together. The conversation was easy, the laughs were frequent, and we seemed to have the same stance on so many topics. A night that I thought would be just another happy hour with coworkers ended up being the most magical date of my life. It was the best misunderstanding I could have hoped for - because it led to our happily ever after. Although, remind me to tell you sometime about how your dad asked me to move in with him. That was another fun misunderstanding (and again, obviously worked out well!).
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| romantic date with future hubby + gelato in hand + stroll through this park = heaven |
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