Girl in the Back

The first time we met I would have never guessed that this would be the guy that finally made me fall in love. This is the story of how we first met.

I had a meeting that Monday morning.  I came in early, or so I thought. When I walked into the meeting room, I realized I was more like the last person to come in. I took a seat in the back. I figured I'd get some studying done too during the breaks. I didn't really pay much attention to the people around me. What I didn't know was that a certain someone was paying very close attention. 

I kept to myself and tried to pay attention to the lecture. During one of the breaks, all of us were experiencing technical issues, so one of the guys in front of me decided to send an email to IT on all our behalf. When he got to my name, he turned around and asked, "How do you pronounce your last name?"

I pronounced it and then they asked me to pronounce it again. The girl to the left asked, "So what ethnicity are you?" 

"Take a guess."

For a few minutes, everyone was silent. One girl looked as though she was going to say something but held back, thinking again. Finally, the tall guy with the glasses and the thick flowy hair spoke. 

He asked, "Are you South Indian?"

"Yes," I said. I was stunned, surprised. I didn't fit the standard stereotype of a South Indian. I was tall, fair skinned, the opposite of dark and short.

"Are you Tamil?"

"No, I'm Malayalee. How did you know that?"

"Your last name. I've been to India before." 

"Really? Where?"

"Delhi, Agra . . ."

Prior to that moment, all I noticed the back of his head and even then, still didn't notice anything much other than the dark flowy head of hair that he had. It was longer than most guys' and thick, the kind you could run your hands through.

According to him, he said he had noticed me from the moment I walked in through the door. He noticed the dark blue top and skirt I wore. When I took my seat in the back, I became "the girl in the back" in his mind. I asked him more than once when he said that phrase and he would never explain. 

We went through the rest of the training without any more technically difficulties. We took a break for lunch and we kept talking, getting to know each other better: where he went to school, origins, etc. The more he talked, the more interested I became. What really got me was that he was well traveled. Europe, Uzbekistan, etc. I was in awe. 

I continued to multi-task. At the end of the training we were heading to a bowling event. I did not do much bowling. I was never much of a good bowler as it was. I was more interested in getting to know him better. The entire team was there but I sat at a table of three that eventually it became four. It was a rather diverse table: myself, Leslie (a Hispanic girl), him, and Ella (an older woman). He told us more stories of his travels. One story stood out to me in particular. 

He was telling us about this hole in the ground in Turkmenistan in the Karakum Desert. It is a crater created decades ago and the flames within have been burning ever since. The locals call it the Door to Hell. Even the trek to get there was a little crazy. A long drive and then a 20? mile trek from the road and then you finally get to the giant burning hole. 

"You went to go see that?!"

"I didn't get to. They rejected my visa."

I sat and laughed. It was the most absurd thing I had heard. During our talks, we all would get up and go bowl when it was our individual turns. He was a really good bowler and when I asked him how often he would bowl, he said rarely. The more we talked, the more eager I was in getting to know him better. It felt like drinking from the ocean. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.

What I didn't know at the time was that he was spellbound by "the girl in the back" from the minute she walked in through the door at training. For him, the bowling event was just an opportunity to get to know her. The more he got to know her, the more he liked her. For every time he had to go up there and bowl, he come running back to the table.

Once it was over, I needed a ride to the train station to get back to my car. Ryan, one of the team members, offered to drop me off, as well as drop David back off to the hotel. I took shot gun but what I really wanted to do was sit in the back and talk to him more. Later, I found out he had felt the same way. We said by once we got to the station.

I would be seeing a lot more of this tall, well traveled, dorky guy. I never thought this would be the guy to change everything I knew about myself.

The next things to happen are found in Chocolate Kisses and First Love
http://reverse-cinderella-stories.blogspot.com/2015/04/chocolate-kisses.html
http://reverse-cinderella-stories.blogspot.com/2015/11/first-love.html

First Love

Even as turbulent and crazy as our relationship got, there was always one day, one moment that I never forgot. Even when things got bad, I would hold on to that one day in time. It was the day I realized I was in love with him.

We had known each other for a while at that point, spending time with each other quite often. I knew I had fallen for him, but I didn’t realize it ran deeper than just that. One day, he had a 4 hour layover in my city. We had planned to get dinner together, probably our favorite semi-Mexican place. I counted down the hours and minutes, until I got out of work. I even left a little earlier than usual. Luckily for me, the train near my office went straight to the airport.

As I jumped on the train, I thought about the little moments, all ones we had shared together since we met. I felt a happiness, a warmth that filled me. At the time, I just chucked it up to giddiness at the prospect of seeing him. Upon arriving at the airport terminal, I went down the escalators to the Delta arrivals/departures area. I was just about to call him to ask where he was, when I saw him. He was dressed in his usual hipster attire: jeans, scarf, shirt, and a jacket I hated. He didn’t have the raging beard that I loved. Instead, it was a much more manageable scruff. I missed the beard. The thing that got me was the smile on his face, big and bright.

Part of me wanted to run to him but I forced myself to walk, though I walked very very quickly. The entire time I was smiling so hard my face was hurting. When I finally reached him, I fell into his arms and wrapped mine around him. I hugged as hard as I could. In that moment, I was happy, utterly, completely, happy. The warmth inside had turned into a blazing fire and it was wonderful. That moment felt like forever but in reality it was probably only a few minutes. And I cherished each one. It was in that moment that I realized I was in love. Not just falling for him, but a love that touches your soul and fills every cell in your body with hope. And just like that, I was in love for the very first time in my life.