Our Story: The Beginning

The first time I set eyes on Rick was at the very end of August 1999, right before Fall semester started at BYU. Rick lived in the apartment unit right across from mine. I could see into his apartment from my kitchen window.

A day or two after I moved in, I was walking to my apartment, and I passed the lounge. I noticed there were guys in there playing basketball on a tiny Nerf basketball hoop. They were blasting music and looked like they were having a good time. Of course, I went in. I shouldn't have. I had a boyfriend- a serious one. We had been dating just short of a year and everybody was waiting for an engagement annoucement. But, I went in anyway. Nothing wrong with a little friendly basketball, right? This was the first time I met Rick and his roommates.

Throughout Fall semester, I got to know Rick and his roommies better. My boyfriend, Jeremy, was a server at a restaurant. He worked on Friday nights until closing, as well as Saturday's from open until close. This left me with a lot of time to socialize with out him. Rick's roommate Dave, started dating my roommate Jeni, and this gave even more opportunities for our two apartments to hang out together.

By Winter Semester, Rick and I had become pretty good friends. The first weekend after school started after Christmas break, they had a back to school dance on campus. Dave and Jeni (who were getting pretty serious by this time) were going along with some other friends and suggested that I come. Somehow I ended up in a car with just Dave, Jeni, and Rick. This felt a little date-ish and it was a little awkward for me because I had a boyfriend.

We went to Wendy's for dinner before the dance. Rick paid for my food, and I thought that was slightly odd. There were several unattached girls there. Why did he pay for my meal? But, I'm not one to pass up a free meal, so I went with it.

I danced with several people at the dance, but I danced with Rick at least twice. He seemed like a safe option for me because he was just a "friend". Rick claims that he was working up a scheme, but he might be saying that to make himself sound like a stud.

At the same time, things started going downhill with Jeremy. We had decided that we wanted to get married, but we were both having trouble deciding whether it was right to get married. The day after the dance, on January 9th, 2000, Jeremy and I decided we needed a little break from eachother in order to gain some perspective and decide individually where we wanted our relationship to go. We decided to not see or talk to eachother for a full month and to use email as our only form as communication. When the month was up, our plan was to meet and discuss our feelings. I would have never guessed how much would happen in that month...
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