House of Wallace: The Beginning Part 2

A few weeks after the painful breakup with John, I began to feel like myself again.
I started smiling and laughing and talking to friends again which all felt so foreign but good.  The numbness began to subside and I felt alive again.  I tried to stay friends with John but every time I spoke to him or saw him I felt the darkness returning so I decided it was best to cut him out of my life altogether.  Another couple weeks passed and John contacted me to say he realized the err of his ways and wanted to give our relationship another try.  I declined because I had also come to a realization, I was totally and utterly miserable when I was with him.  We were toxic together.

October and November were great months.  I was back to the old, happy, fun Jessica.  I was casually dating and going out with friends.  My family often commented on the drastic change I took when I got away from John.  They were thrilled to say the least.

A few days before Thanksgiving, I received a call from Clint.  He had moved back to Arkansas in August (I heard he had and I was very happy about it.  Just to clarify, it is 2007) and wanted to catch up.  He told me that he knew John and I had broken up and that he would like to take me on a date if I wanted to.  Of course I accepted, I had a crush on him since we met.  Clint knew John would not be happy about him breaking guy code but he didn’t care because he said he also had a crush on me since day one.

For our first date we went to the movies and saw “The Mist.”  I was so nervous.  I hadn’t felt this feeling about another person, ever.  I had time to waste before our date so I went to Fresh Market to browse.  They had big beautiful sunflowers there and like a dork, I bought one to give to Clint on our date.  I felt like such an idiot when he arrived and I presented him with the sunflower…it seemed like a good idea when I bought it.  They are my favorite and I thought…well I don’t know what I thought.  He was wearing a hoodie and put the sunflower through the front pouch for everyone to see and occasionally used it as a wand.  I secretly think he loved it-we still laugh about it to this day.  He was such a gentleman that evening.  The date was a success. 

Clint and I: December 2007

After Thanksgiving we went on our second date, again to the movies.  I don’t remember what we saw that time because this time he held my hand, it took him forever to finally grab it.  He didn’t let go until the movie was over and we both had a clammy, sweaty hand (gross, I know).  We sat in the parking lot for hours talking and really getting to know one another.  We did this often.  As I was driving myself home from our date, I started thinking that Clint could be “The One.”  I tried to rationalize with myself that I barely knew him but it was clear that I was already falling in love.  He was so easy to be around and I could be myself.  He didn’t try to change me. 

We spent all the time we could together and after a little over a week we told one another how we felt.  We were both in love.  Real love. 

To be continued…