How We Became "Official"

The Story How We Met Part II

I noticed that I had about 10 drafts on my blog that I've never published, so I thought it might be nice to finish a few of them. This post is Part II of "Easy as Pie: The Story How We Met." You can read that here. 

In this post, you'll see what lead up to Brad and me having our first & last DTR (Defining the Relationship) and becoming "official."

Panda Express Fortune

The second time we went out, I met him during his lunch break at the Provo Towne Center food court. (Classy, I know) We ended up choosing Panda Express for lunch. The fortune that came with my meal said "you will obtain your goal if you maintain your course."

I really liked this fortune and I ended up tucking it away in my purse. Later that night, I glued it on to my "dream board" that hung over my bed. For anyone who doesn't think writing your goals down makes a difference, trust me, it does. 

First Hand Hold

After a few more dates, he held my hand for the first time while we were watching the movie Taken at his apartment.

It was a good thing I had seen Taken a few times before because I was too excited to focus on the movie. 

Our First Kiss

After a romantic night of dinner, ice skating and "What Happens in Vegas," Brad pulled the trigger and kissed me!

He was probably feeling pretty confident since earlier that night I had scheduled "take Jules out" on his phone calendar every Friday for those next two months. 

Spontaneous Bike Ride

Feeling adventurous one night, Brad and I decided to "borrow" some bikes we found at his apartment complex and take them for a stroll around campus. After finding a good spot to stop and talk, it started raining shortly after. This resulted in our first rain kiss!

It looked a little something like this:

Okay, maybe not quite like that.

Las Vegas

One night while hanging out at Brad's apartment, we made an impulse decision to drive to Vegas the next morning. I was starting my new job at Qualtrics that next week, so it was either now or never! (Did I mention Brad called his sister Kacey that morning to tell her we were leaving in a few hours? Sorry Kacey!)

Vegas was a success. I got to meet Kacey, Jon, Scarlet, Rhode and Asher and the kids made me feel right at home by calling me "Aunt Jules" the whole time. (You can read about this on Kacey's blog)

They were a little confused about where Brad and I stood and so was I.

We did the basics in Vegas: watched the Bellagio fountain show, the Mirage Fire Show and let's not forget the Sirens of TI. You take a little bit of sugar and a little bit of spice and you shake it, shake it!

Picture courtesy of Scarlet, age 4

In front of the Bellagio

There were a few instances that weekend that left me very confused. For example, Kacey told us when she was tucking Rhode in to bed the night before, he was listing off everyone that he loved. His list went like this: "I love mommy, I love daddy, I love Scarlet, Asher, Uncle Brad, and Uncle Brad's girlfriend...what's her name again?"

Kacey finished her story with, "Uncle Brad's girlfriend's name is Julianna, Rhode" to which he happily exclaimed, "Oh, yeah!"

Rhode

I distinctly remember looking over at Brad to see his reaction to Kacey's use of the word "girlfriend." He was just smiling and laughing.

At that moment, my thoughts were:

He didn't correct her, thank goodness! Did she refer to me as that because that's how he described me? Or, did she just assume? Oh my gosh, this is so confusing! 

Our DTR

The weekend flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to Provo.

During the drive back, Brad and I started up a conversation about past relationships. We had the safest conversation imaginable and would answer each others questions in the format, "well, when I'm dating someone, I like it when..."

After a while, we got on to the topic of things we didn't like when dating someone and Brad listed things like being too clingy and needy. Then, he threw me a curve ball and jokingly said, "if you do any of those things, I'm going to break up with you!"

Break up with me? Does that mean we're together??

I played it cool and just kept on talking (even though I was dying all weekend to know where we stood).

After a while, I asked him another question. Before he answered, he started laughing. I didn't know what he was laughing about, so after a few minutes of interrogation, he finally cracked and told me what he thought was so funny. 

He asked if I had noticed that any time we would answer each other's questions, we would start with, "when I'm dating someone.."

Of course I had noticed

Playing dumb, I responded..."Oh, really? Yeah, I guess we have."

Brad went on to say that he thought it was funny because he considered us dating and asked if I did too.

I answered saying, "yeah, I consider us dating. Like, boyfriend/girlfriend dating?"

And Brad so romantically responded with, "yeah, sure!"

And that's when we became "official."