Holly’s Side of the Story
Little did I know that at that point he thought I was cute…
It was my freshman year of college and the first day of my General Psychology class when I noticed the very cute and nice guy holding the door open for the entire class to enter the room. Little did I know that at that point he thought I was cute and had wanted to hold the door open so that he could see me. Over the course of the semester we passed by each other a few times on our way to class and chatted briefly about the pointless assignment that was due that day, or how we thought the psych professor might actually be performing experiments on our class. But whatever the conversation was, it was brief and shallow because we both were too shy to really get to know the other person.
David’s Side of the Story
I wasn’t too shy. I was intimidated by the posse of girls Holly arrived with to class every day! Seriously, it was her and at least four other girls. I thought, “Wow, she’s really popular. There’s no way I have a chance with her.”
Holly
I was a nursing major at the time! I was just with my fellow nursing majors. We had to band together because we didn’t have much extracurricular time to meet other people.
David
The point is, as outgoing as I am, this girl was way too cute for me to even think about having a chance with her. Fast forward a year and a half. I’m riding my bike through campus and see these girls out on the lawn throwing a frisbee. One of them waves at me. It’s Holly. Still beautiful. And I think, “Crap. I do not remember her name!”
“Crap. I do not remember her name!”
Holly
I was still too shy to call him out on it, but I never let him forget it now! That random meeting crossing campus got us reconnected and we started talking on… wait for it… AOL Instant Messenger!
David
Fun fact: This is also when Facebook was brand new, exclusive to certain colleges and universities only. It had just become available for our university. So Holly and I started a Facebook group together called Procrastinators Anonymous. I know. We’re fancy.
Holly
We spent that summer getting to know each other through Instant Messenger, David in Hawaii working on a couple of TV shows and me in Azusa taking summer classes and working as a hostess at Mimi’s Café. I was pretty smitten from the beginning and was giddy everytime he would sign-on online (which meant we could chat).
David
It took me a little longer than Holly to realize that there was something special between us, but I finally realized that I looked forward to our daily chats and would miss talking to Holly when we couldn’t connect. Shortly after that realization, I worked up the courage to call her.
Holly
I can still picture where I was standing in my apartment when he called.
On the phone. It was not part of our regular online messaging, so I was super excited. I can still picture where I was standing in my apartment when he called. It was the highlight of my day and it made me look forward to him coming back to school at the end of the summer all that much more.
David
I came back to school knowing that Holly was the one for me. I knew I wanted to ask her out and I knew that I wanted to marry her. For real. I just knew. What I wasn’t sure of, was if she felt the same way about me. I came back knowing I wanted to ask her out as soon as I had the opportunity. I also wanted it to be completely unique and original, so I came up with the idea of buying a kite and asking her if she wanted to go fly it with me. Guess what? Kites are seasonal items at your local stores! I could not find a single one! Where was Amazon Prime when I needed it?
I knew I wanted to ask her out and I knew that I wanted to marry her.
Holly
I had no idea he was planning any of this. But when he came back, I used every excuse I could think of to hang out with him.
David
At the time, she was studying to become a server at Mimi’s so I offered to help her study. I know, right? No ulterior motives at all. Still kiteless, my excitement was too much to stand, so I worked up the courage to ask her out to dinner. Plan B was dinner at Red Robin. Neither of us really remember what we talked about that night at dinner, but it was fun. Now, if you ask Holly, this was not our first date. However, I drove, I paid, and I opened her door for her. IT WAS A DATE.
Holly
IT WAS NOT A DATE!
IT WAS NOT A DATE! Ok, maybe it was. But I didn’t think so at the time! So the next night when David was helping me study and I said, “Hey, we should go to Mimi’s sometime!”, because that’s where I worked, I didn’t think I was saying that we should go on a date.
David
We’re sitting there studying her server training stuff, and Holly says, “We should go to Mimi’s!” Wait…Did she just ask me out on a date?! I couldn’t believe it. Things were going perfectly and we were about to go on our second date. Then, the next day when we had decided to go, she messaged me before I was about to pick her up and said, “Is it ok if my friend comes too?”. Ummm…what? No it was not ok! But I wasn’t about to tell her that. So I decided that I’d ask her to a movie after dinner, just the two of us.
Holly
THAT’S when I realized that this was a date.
He insisted on picking me up first, even though he lived right across the apartment complex from my friend, Amy, who was coming too. I insisted on coming over to them, but he insisted more (I was a little clueless, I know). So after he picked me up, but before we picked up Amy, he asked me to go to a movie with him after dinner. Just the two of us. THAT’S when I realized that this was a date. Then I got nervous. And excited! But really nervous. Realizing that David, the guy who I had looked forward to getting to chat with almost every day for the past three months, liked me too. It was almost more than I could handle. So we all went to dinner and had a blast and then David and I went on our first “real date” (according to me) to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
