My Love Story- part 5- Friends

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After my mother suspected (out loud) that it could possibly be me that Gary was stopping by to see, I started to see him in a whole new light. Maybe he wasn't just picking on me as Darla's little sister, maybe he was flirting with me because I wasn't a little girl anymore, but a young woman.

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For the next couple of years he was back and forth from college out west to coming home for the holidays and summer break. I found a new hometown boyfriend named Ray. I was just having fun with that relationship and wasn't getting my heart too wrapped up with him as I did with Al. I had met him at a football game where he was dressed in tight Levi jeans and a white tank top and I quickly fell for his bulging biceps.... er, I mean, for his great personality. His rock hard abs.... er, I mean, rock hard determination to be good to me was nice and I enjoyed his attention. It was all for fun and we did have fun. But every time I caught wind that Gary was coming home for a visit, I broke up with Ray. And almost as soon as Gary left to go back to school, Ray and I magically made up.

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In those few years Gary and I became good friends. He (with a few of his tag along friends from church) would come over to watch MTV video's. We'd hang out at the beach. Once we all took a late night walk to a park near my house to hang out. He pushed me on the swing. Then we stopped by the local gas station for treats on the way home. I remember him giving me a piggy back ride home, all the while I fed him gummy worms for his good hard work of carrying me. I once invited him to come along with my family, to the beach. I also invited another guy friend. That was an interesting day.

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Out of nowhere I was suckered into going out on a date with one of the young men from our church. The very next day Gary (with friend in tow) came to tease me, calling me Sis. H. "Hi Sis H, how was your date last night??" I could have died that the word was out. I wanted it to be known that I had no desire to be Sis H, all the while not wanting to speak meanly about a previous date.

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One day we all met up at the church to play basketball and at one point the ball was passed to me and Gary was running to me to get the ball. I played basketball in high school and yet I screamed like a girl and ran out the building with the ball in my arm like it was a football. He tackled me to the ground and while I was on my back laughing he leaned in and kissed me. Right on my teeth, since my mouth was wide open with laughter.

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When Gary went back to school he and I started writing letters.

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We had most definitely become very good friends.

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I was still confused about his real feelings for me but I had a feeling that he may be my future husband and I even wrote it down in my journal. I somehow, deep down felt like no matter what, he'd be mine in the end and it was all okay. No matter the confusion I felt now.

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But then Ray and I broke up (permanently this time) and a new guy came along and while Gary was away at school, it was looking like this new guy Jay may be the one guy that would get between me and Gary.

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That relationship started off innocently enough. I would call things off with him, just as I had Ray, when Gary came home. But after about a year our relationship got quite serious. Way way too serious. And when Gary caught wind he got even more serious.

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That is when Gary sat me down to make his intentions known.

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He loved me. He told me so. All of my past (3) boyfriends had told me the same but when Gary said it, he really meant it and I knew it. The other boyfriends were just that, boys. Gary was a man (and not just in age) and he would never ever say that unless he meant it. Gary was honorable and had never said it to another girl because he never meant it.

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Gary spoke to me in earnest about how if I wanted a chance with him, I would have to call things off with the boyfriend (or the need to have a boyfriend in general). He wanted me to have fun and to date around but if I wanted a chance of him and me one day, I needed to stop getting so serious about someone other than him.

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Then he asked me if he could kiss me. I was offended. Shouldn't a gentleman know when a woman wants to be kissed? Then he told me that in Utah and Idaho (where he was attending school) the girls wanted to be asked first. I declared that I was a southern girl and I expected him to know when I want a kiss and went I don't! Confused, he gave it some time, about 20 minutes, while walking home (we'd been at that park again) he stopped me right in the middle of the street and kissed me good.

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Most people at our church were unaware of the relationship Gary and I had developed but the word got out when one night we attended a church dance and the first slow dance, he asked me to dance, and he held me close and tight. I was sure a chaperone would tap us on the shoulder and let us know we were dancing too close but nobody did. I remember turning and seeing mouthes gaped open when people saw us and realized something was going on between us.

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But he was leaving me again. Always leaving. But with promises to write more often and to call me weekly.

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He did do that at first, (one morning I awoke to a rose that he had his cousin sneak over and leave on the front porch and he even managed to send me a braclet in a letter) but as a poor college student the phone bill was getting hard to pay. (no free nights and weekends in the 80's) And as a studious college student who also worked, having the time to write me often was proving difficult.

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Gradually things slowed down with Gary... and before I knew it, I was back with Jay. The one guy that Gary made very clear could be the end of the two of us, and I knew it.

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to be continued