Books, Balance, & Beyond

My fiancee keeps asking me when I am going to talk about her on my blog. She has a point. She is an incredibly important part of my life and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. Our story is one of love and struggle, as most love stories go. I am truly blessed as I have a love with her that is one that you read about in romance novels or see on the silver screen. I never dreamed a love like ours existed in real life but I was wrong.

I first met her as a crew person at Wendy’s in 2012. (How I got there is another story in itself; someday I will be brave enough to tell that one). She was the Training Store Manager of another Wendy’s close to the store I worked in, and was in my store frequently to borrow product. I worked the front counter at the time and I always said hi to her and engaged in small talk. She told me later after we became friends that she thought of me as an annoying crew person and wondered why I kept talking to her. It’s incredibly funny now.

Fast forward about 2 years and I was now a shift supervisor. I was about to be promoted to Restaurant Manager and was being transferred to her store in another town. I was upset to be leaving the store where I had made a lot of friends and I had a great team of employees and coworkers. Everyone kept asking me if I was nervous to be working for her as she had a bit of a reputation of being a hard ass. I wasn’t nervous about working for her; I only wanted to make a good impression and further my career with Wendy’s.

I still remember my first day there like it was yesterday. It was cold and icy and we were about to re-open after a remodel the next day. I was finishing my cigarette outside my car and she came outside and slipped and fell on the ice. “You saw nothing,” she told me and kept walking around the building. I turned around, finished my cigarette and got my stuff out of the car, pretending I didn’t notice. We laugh about this now.

The following August, I was covering her vacation and I had had a particularly rough day, as it was Friday and I had 2 people call out on me. I was texting with her and telling her about the day, when out of the blue, she told me she was at Jamie’s (a local restaurant) and said I should join her for a beer. I wasn’t that far into my drive home so I turned around and met her there. I was so nervous. I looked at her as my mentor and I thought she wouldn’t want to even give me the time of day outside work. I had (and still have) a whole lot of respect for her. We were kind of awkward at first, but ended up having a really fun night.  She had just dropped off her kids for their vacation with their dad, and hanging out with me was a welcome distraction for her.

After that, we would hang out every other weekend when her kids were with their dad. We had a blast together. When we weren’t hanging out, we were on the phone. We could literally talk for hours. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t like to talk on the phone that much. I am definitely more of a texter. I just liked talking to her so much that I didn’t mind it with her. We were talking so much and spending so much time together one of my best friends asked me if I was “switching teams.” At the time, I never even thought about being with a woman. I also hadn’t openly thought about any type of romantic feelings towards her. My friend kind of opened my eyes to how I really felt towards her. I was like, oh shit. I think I am starting to feel some type of way. However, I brushed it off and denied it to my friend and myself.

One day, she was called to another Wendy’s store to check on inventory and a major discrepancy in the food cost there. Apparently the GM had been faking his numbers to make his numbers look better. I knew what this meant. I was next in line to be promoted to GM. I was going to be leaving her store and getting my own. I didn’t want to leave that store and the store I was getting was a tough store. However, I truly was excited to be getting my own store. It was a mixed bag of emotions.

Once I was established in my own store, we started hanging out more. I would stay at her house overnight to hang out. We spent a lot of time hanging out at Jamie’s and getting to know each other. We never seemed to run out of things to talk about. We laughed together so much it was crazy. Our relationship kept growing over the next few months.

In December, I was invited to her family’s Christmas party with my daughter, who was visiting for Christmas. We had a blast. Then we were invited back for New Year’s Eve, planning on sleeping over as I knew I would be having a few drinks. Her boys and my daughter got along so well, playing video games and teasing each other as kids do.

This was the night that I finally threw caution to the wind. It was after midnight, and I was a bit inebriated, so I finally made a move and kissed her. I was so scared. It was cautious, nervous, but the kiss was returned and my heart soared. I knew then that I could no longer deny my true feelings for her and I also knew she felt the same about me. It was the beginning of a beautiful love story that is still going strong to this day, almost 11 years later. She is my soul mate, my forever love.