Weddingbee

Mr. Dahlia and I watched Lost in Translation.

We had spent the previous year getting to know each other bit by bit. We found ourselves alone in a table in the dining hall when all of our mutual friends decided to get dessert simultaneously, and he let his friend (who was one of my housemates) and I stay in his dorm room when a tornado went through our college campus; later that year, he joined my Bible study.

That summer, we stayed up late playing chess most every night, since both of us were working on campus. That, and a crazy weekend road trip with some friends to Arkansas to go to a drive-in movie theater. Early that fall, we had coordinated a birthday party for that same friend/housemate; we chased sunsets and discovered a “secret” lake located not too far away in the farm country that surrounded our college.

But three years ago tonight, we watched Lost in Translation. Mr. Dahlia had broken up with his longtime on-again off-again lady friend, and my housemates were all off doing various things (i.e. they had a marching band commitment) . We watched the movie in my room (the single! No roommate for me that year!) in the house, and when the movie was over, he looked at me. And said “Miss Dahlia, I have to tell you something. I’m not quite sure how to say this, but I’m really a big…fan of you.”

And there you have it.

Us then:

At the drive-in in Arkansas.

Serving people at that friend’s birthday party. (Yes, it was in a coffee shop- the one we worked at and I lived above in college. As an aside, about this time, that same friend of ours had a dream that the two of us were getting married.)

And now:

In DC a couple of weeks ago.

Right before hearing DJ Tiesto.

Happy anniversary, my love.

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