The Funny Thing About Dates

Although I was never alive or at least of dating age when a date was very simply defined I always wished I had been! This "hanging out" and just being around each other a lot while you figure if you like each other always seemed so much more complicated than boy likes girl so boy asks girl out and if girl is interested in boy she says yes and they go eat, to a movie, etc. Then if they have a good time boy ask girl out again and girl says yes. If they continue to have a good time it becomes regular habit and the girl agrees not to say yes to any other boys that ask her out and the boy agrees not to ask any other girls out. As we all know, MOST of the time this is not how it happens for couples and we are no different, it didn't happen anything like that for us.
After Matt and I had been dating for a while we started discussing when it was that we actually started dating. These are the facts: I met him in my interview at the end of October (although some like to say they could see the writing on the wall at this point that seems QUITE impossible to me. I was VERY unhappy in my current work situation and I had NOTHING on my mind except getting this job. I did remember a guy being in the interview but I couldn't tell you ANYTHING about him. In fact, a few days later he would ask me to be his FB friend and I would have no idea who he was.
Back to the facts: I started full time in the beginning of November. Sometime around the second week in January we exchanged phone numbers and started spending time talking in the parking lot for a long time. This is around the same time that I found out that he had just gotten out of a three year relationship just a few days before. Even though I knew at this point I was developing feelings for him, I KNEW I wanted NO part of that. Proving once again that the heart is STRONGER than the mind, that didn't stop us from squeezing every extra second together at work that we could. I found myself missing him when I went home and looking forward to when he walked in every morning. Even though we had exchanged numbers already it took a week or so before we actually started calling and texting each other. Then that started happening a lot and it was over the course of these conversations that we both agreed he needed to be by himself for a while since he had just broken up with someone. We agreed but kept talking, never seeing each other outside of work but talking.
That brings us to January 17th. Thanks to Leigh's urging I invited Matt over to watch a movie that night with me and Leigh. We all watched We Are Marshall and when Leigh went to bed we stayed up and talked for a while. Even though it went completely against our own directions, he kissed me goodnight before he left. I knew I was in trouble RIGHT THEN. The next day we both snuck away from the office in separate vehicles and met at Farmhouse Kitchen for lunch. Even though they have some of the best food I have EVER had there and it has since become one of my favorite restaurants I could barely eat a bite and when Matt held my hand as he walked me to my car after he paid I thought I was going to lose the few bites I had managed to swallow!
We started seeing each other regularly from then on and haven't stopped :) Because there is no real first date per say we decided that the night he came over to our apartment would count as when we started dating since it was the first time we kissed and when we stopped fighting it. It would be a few weeks before our families and friends would find out and a few more before our co-workers and bosses would but the decision has been made and it stands, January 17th is our dateversary! People think we moved fast but if I had known then how good it would be now, I would have hurried things along even more :)

"Scarcely had I left them When I found him whom my soul loves; I held on to him and would not let him go Until I had brought him to my mother's house" Song of Solomon 3:4