Everything that happened and every way that we grew led us to this moment.
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I'd fallen in love with a man I'd never met. And I was going to meet him in four days. The time couldn't move quickly enough.
Chapter 19: Antici................................pation
Once I realized that I was in love with Levi, things suddenly got very real. And somehow writing e-mails back and forth when I had the option of hearing his voice on the phone--and hearing it for a longer amount of time if I didn't already tell him about my day in a letter--became very unnecessary. So the last "courtship" e-mail had been sent.
It was time to get serious.
The week at school simply crawled by. But my days were often broken up by pleasant text messages from Levi.
Ok. Text messages. Here's the thing. I had become a texting monster after moving out to my small little town. When my first year of students graduated, suddenly all of them wanted to be my friend. And what do today's high school students do with their friends? Well, in case you're wondering, the answer is not talking on the phone. It's texting. Lots of texting. So I'd spent my summer having conversations over text with one person while actually hanging out with another person in person.
Yeah. I was one of those people. I'm hanging my head in shame right now.
But that had stopped just before I was matched with Levi. I decided to take control. I decided to simply leave my phone in the other room all day long. No longer would I keep it in my hand as I wandered from living room to kitchen to bathroom. No longer was I going to leap from the couch when my phone bleeped at me from the kitchen counter. My phone was not the boss of me!
After Levi and I had been talking on the phone for about a week, he began to send me a sweet text message every now and then. Nothing over-the-top (not yet at least!), just little things to say hello or that he couldn't wait for our next phone call.
Well, in the days leading up to our first, glorious meeting, he began to step up his game in a major way.
I got messages like "In just over 48 hours I'm going to be driving down to Kansas to meet the prettiest English teacher ever," or "I'm just so excited to finally see you face to face. I've got butterflies like crazy!"
Those definitely left spots bright enough in my day to last me until our phone conversations in the evenings. No need for a text every two minutes to give me a little boost and let me know he's thinking about me. Just one good shot in the middle of the day and I'm coasting for hours.
.....That all smacks a little of drug use doesn't it? Well, don't worry. You won't find any Twilight references in this blog where I talk about Levi being my heroine cause people aren't drugs and that stuff will kill you.
Anyway, two days before Levi drove the 12 hours to come meet me, we were on the phone in the evening (of course). I was stretched out on my couch with my feet above me (we're talking 90 degrees in the air, people) cause that's how I roll. We were talking about how excited we were to meet each other and what we thought we might do the first time we saw each other's face.
"I can't wait to see you, but I'm so nervous," Levi admitted. "I've never been so excited to meet someone."
"I know what you mean," I replied, grateful he couldn't see me blushing.
"I just feel so blessed . . ." he said, letting his words trail off in a long pause.
The pause continued. And continued. My legs came down from the air and I sat up on the couch, listening intently to the silence. It was loud. You know what I mean when I say the silence was loud? There were things unsaid in that silence on both ends. The air felt electric and goosebumps popped up all over my arms.
"I have a lot to tell you when I get there," Levi finally said, almost in a whisper.
"Me too," I almost-whispered back.
We said good night after that. It was safer that way. It wouldn't do at all to have declarations of love and emotion happen over the phone when we hadn't even met in person yet.
The next day, Thursday, flew by in a blur. Levi's plan was to go to sleep right after work and start driving to Kansas early on Friday morning so he could arrive by early evening. We had decided not to talk that day, and that he'd call me on Friday morning to let me know how his drive was going.
The night ended up being a pretty relaxing evening. I cooked a chicken and got that ready for a special meal I was making Levi that weekend while watching some Doctor Who. I munched on some chips and dip, and went to bed early, determined to wake up at the crack of dawn the next morning to make some final preparations.
The next morning I began my day with my usual routine. Stumble out of bed long before the sun comes up, prop my computer open on the bathroom counter with some energetic music blaring out of it, take a quick and boiling hot shower to wake myself up, and alternate between dancing/hopping around to the beat and doing normal hygiene and grooming things like brushing my teeth.
As 8:00 rolled around and the sun was finally emerging (remember, this is still the dead of winter), my phone bleeped at me. Knowing it was Levi checking in, I paused my music and answered quickly.
"Good morning!" I chirped.
"Hey, you," he replied, sounding happy but tired.
"Where you at?" I asked, still hopping a bit from the beat stuck in my head.
"Salina."
I stopped hopping.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Kansas, Salina is a town in it. Levi was in Kansas.
"What?" I said, dumbfounded. "You're in Salina already?"
"Yeah," he said, laughing. "I couldn't get to sleep after work because I was too excited to see you, so I just decided to leave around 11 last night. I'll be there in about three and a half hours."
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Oh, dear reader, I know, I know. How could I be so cruel and stop the story right there?!
Don't worry. You can just click on to the next chapter right now!
Next Chapter (Chapter 20: Face to Face) Previous Chapter (Chapter 18: The Truth vs. The Brain)
Next Chapter (Chapter 20: Face to Face) Previous Chapter (Chapter 18: The Truth vs. The Brain)
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