our love Story {boy talks to girl}.

Part one can be found here. We left off in the school cafeteria with Anthony sitting next to me and purposely ignoring me. That was September of 2011. We saw each other periodically at work things, but we spent the majority of our time in different buildings which were separated by a somewhat busy street. I imagine that chasing fifty 5th grade students around kept him pretty busy. I was still dating the same guy I was when I didn't meet Anthony the first time around. Every time we crossed paths - which was maybe five or ten times and it was always in passing - I was struck by how attractive he was...despite the fact that I was with someone else. Hey, he was attractive then and he's attractive now. That's just life. One of my responsibilities at work was to help oversee the Confirmation ceremony and rehearsal. Lo and behold, one of the Confirmation students chose Mr. Sloan as his sponsor. He'd been at a few of the Confirmation sponsor sessions, but again, I never talked to him and he never talked to me (we had 50 candidates that year so the crowd was large anyway, there was - to my knowledge - no purposeful ignoring going on). The time for Confirmation practice came on April 21st, 2012. I got to work early and printed off the list for who I'd be checking in when I saw Mr. Sloan's name on it. Keep in mind that I only really knew him as Mr. Sloan because that's what all the kids called him and I never actually met him. I was suddenly nervous and excited that he'd be there. My boyfriend and I had a HUMONGOUS fight that weekend that nearly killed our relationship and we weren't exactly on speaking terms. I headed down to the same cafeteria we didn't meet in to get ready for check in. But who decided to show up early (which is totally unlike him, by the way!)? Mr. Sloan. But of course. So it was he and I alone in the cafeteria. Just sitting there. Two introverts who were wildly attracted to each other - and had been for the entire school year - and yet too introverted to actually talk. Somehow, and I don't even recall how, a conversation began. Anthony would tell you that it went like this, "Hi, my name is Amanda and I have a BOYFRIEND. I really like my BOYFRIEND." I beg to differ. I remember talking casually to him for a few minutes (despite the fact that I was drooling over him internally) and then nonchalantly (or so I thought) slipping into the conversation that I had a boyfriend. Why did I do such a thing you ask? Why, when I was so clearly attracted to this man did I shoot myself in the foot and tell him that I was unavailable? Because I was. And because I was so incredibly attracted to him that I didn't want to give him the wrong impression, lead him on or play games with him. I knew very little about him, but he commanded respect, more so than most men I know. It was precisely because I was attracted to him that I mentioned having a boyfriend. Even though that boyfriend and I weren't speaking (not our first batch of the silent game), I was, for all intents and purposes, still with him. About .00000001 seconds after I dropped that little truth bomb on Anthony - who ever's version you believe - he stopped talking to me. So there we were, in that same cafeteria, alone, still not talking. Eventually others showed up for Confirmation practice and the day went on. The next day at the ceremony Mr. Sloan didn't talk to me either. I'll admit, I was a little crushed that our conversation had ended so quickly, but looking back I appreciated that he didn't play games with me either. It was only three weeks or so after Confirmation that something dramatically changed... {Next Wednesday! Come back!}