Our Love Story---Part 2

And this is why I rarely do series of posts...I feel too much pressure to get the next one posted, and it doesn't usually happen in a timely manner. Sorry to keep you in suspense for a few days...

Now where was I...

Ah, yes, Patrick was NOT calling me. Turns out he was in fact interested, but he was trying to be cautious. He wanted to get to know me and not rush into a "relationship." He did eventually call me, and we began emailing and spending limited time together (mostly in groups). As Sarah and Jason expected, we did have several friends in common. There were a lot of people at our church that were our age, and every Sunday, a group would go out after church to play volleyball, have lunch, go hiking, go swimming, or participate in some other fun group activity. We both started going to these outings more regularly. I was attending a Christian Fellowship group at Hopkins (that my roommate took me to after I moved to the city having never met her or seeing our apartment....another amazing God story I'll have to post sometime). Patrick went to Hopkins for undergrad and was working there on a research team when I met him. He attended this group at some point during his time there, but had stopped going. He conveniently started going again after he met me....

Eventually, we had our first "define the relationship" conversation. It didn't go quite the way I expected. Patrick really wanted to continue being friends, but he wanted to guard against spending much time together alone. He wanted to be careful not to lead me on, and I think he really envisioned us being friends for a while and then waking up one day to discover we were in love (sort of the Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye type philosophy). Problem was, we were already attracted to each other! However, we backed off talking so much on the phone, limited emails, and tried to just spend time in the groups I mentioned.

I guard my heart pretty closely. I was attracted to Patrick, but I was careful to not get attached to the idea of us becoming a couple. A friend from high school came into town and invited me to dinner. We went to Ruth's Chris (yeah, not such a cheap night), and I think it just about killed Patrick. We continued as friends for a few months (occasionally having a repeat conversation about not spending too much time together), and then something changed....