Dustin and I went to the same high school in a small town. It’s one of those towns where there’s one junior high and one high school, so your graduating class is the same since the sixth grade. One would think that with the same mutual friends we had (or mutual friends who were siblings) that we would have known one another in high school, but we didn’t. Our age gap (in high school, he was a senior while I was a freshman) was just enough to keep us from knowing one another in school. And that’s probably a good thing.
I hadn’t been teaching for an entire year when the social studies teacher across the hall called me on a Sunday afternoon asking if I would be interested in going on a blind date with someone. She told me all about this guy who was from Hartselle and went to her church, but he was currently working and living in Mississippi and would come back to visit every once in a while. She also let me know that he had an interview back home and was actively working to move back. Since I trusted her, I agreed and let her know that she could give him my phone number. Remember, this was on a Sunday (and it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving).
I didn’t hear from him until Tuesday evening when he called. I missed his call and he left a voicemail. I wish I still had that voicemail because there’s no telling how awkward he sounded haha! I called him back and got his voicemail. He called me back and we talked for a hour. That was my first sign that we were meant to be together.
We were out of school Wednesday-Friday for Thanksgiving break. I got a text from him Wednesday night just asking how my day had gone. I thought that was so sweet of him because no other guy had ever done that. Then we texted some on Thanksgiving and decided our first date would be that Friday night to go out to eat and watch our high school football team compete in regionals at home.
Because I lived with my mom and stepdad at the time and we lived way out in the country, I told him that I would meet him in a central location to ride with him. My main reason for doing this was in case this turned out to be a horrible date, I didn’t want to be stuck with him driving me home at the end of the night–like I said, I lived way out in the country.
After I met up with him and hopped in his truck, he took me to Chili’s to eat (not my fav) and he barely ate his hamburger while I proceeded to eat almost my entire salad haha! That’s the only time I’ve ever seen Dustin not finish a meal 🙂 We talked the entire meal and I thought it was going really well.
Then we went to the football game and sat with his friends and he quit talking to me after that. We’ve since laughed about our first date and I’ve told him it was a horrible idea to take me to meet his friends on a first date since he was so awkward.
After the game (our high school won!), he took me back to my car and worked up the nerve to ask me to watch the Iron Bowl the next night at his friends’ house. I made up something about already having plans because I definitely didn’t want to go watch a football game again and have him ignore me the entire time.
Well, I ended up giving him a second chance and the rest is history!
