My Valentine That Almost Wasn’t

Valentine’s Day is only a week away! While I do think that Valentine’s Day for the most part is a Hallmark holiday, it does serve a worthwhile purpose. We shouldn’t really need a reminder on the calendar to let our special someone know just how special they are, but far too many of us fall prey to the routines of daily life and lose track of saying “I love you” or gradually do less and less to show your significant other that you really care about them. I’m certainly not immune to this. I know I definitely have room for improvement in this category.

For today’s post I thought I would share the story of how I met my wife and didn’t even ask her out…

In The Beginning…

The summer after I graduated college, my college roommate got married. They had an outdoor wedding, and the weather turned out very nice for it. I was an usher, and it got pretty hot wearing a black tux outside in the summer; but it wasn’t too bad.

The reception was where things got interesting, and my complete incompetence with the female gender almost got the best of me. You see, I met this girl the night before at the rehearsal dinner. She was quite pretty. I didn’t talk to her or anything at the rehearsal dinner, but at the reception following the wedding I asked her to dance.  We danced and talked for a while, and overall I thought we really “clicked”. I certainly wasn’t sure about the “clicking” though, as I’m not really good at reading people.

The reception ended, and her and I stayed a while and helped clean up at the reception, put things away, etc. I thought we were getting along pretty well. Then once everything was finished everyone left, myself included. After I’d driven about 30 minutes, I realized “I never asked her for her number.”  I felt like such an idiot.  I mean, I had no idea if she’d have actually given it to me, but at least I could have asked.  I was actually mingling and talking with a really cool girl, and I didn’t finish up with asking for her number.

Getting a Second Chance

As luck would have it, my friend (the one that got married) and his wife both noticed how well this girl and I were getting along and asked me about it a week or so later. I confessed that I didn’t even ask for the girl’s telephone number. However, I was bailed out by my friend and his wife. They gave me the girls’ number, and I gave her a call. Turns out, she was having a good time at the wedding (just like me) and was a little surprised that I just left without asking for her number. We talked on the phone for a while, and I asked her out on a date.

Five and a Half Years Later

The date went well, we went on a bunch more, and here we are today going on five and a half years later. We’re happily married and have a two-year-old boy. My wife still teases me every now and then about how I didn’t even ask her out when we first met, and we get a good laugh out of it. There are a lot of things in life that you only get one chance at. Luckily for me, I got a second chance at asking my wife out.

Honey, I think you’re pretty awesome, and I would marry you again in a heartbeat. You’re a great wife and a great mom! I love you!