The Story of Us [Part Two]

I liked Fritz. You liked Hayley.
For some reason I decided to be rude and candid and arrogant to you. I'm still not sure why. I think it was because you still intimidated me and I wanted to do everything completely opposite of acting like that. So I said some things I didn't mean. I tried to find your buttons and push them. I was very good at it. Too good at it.
I remember the day you texted me. You stole my number off my employee page and tried to freak me out. You liked pushing my buttons too. I thought it might be you when that strange number texted me. But I didn't want to think you would go that far out of your way for me.
I'm sure I double checked the number with Hayley. She had your number and she texted you a bit. Then you and I began texting. And suddenly we became friends. I became infatuated with you all too quickly.
Even though I found out much later you did actually like me when we were 17, you never admitted it then. Even when you took me out on Valentine's Day. I went rock climbing for you and I was so scared of heights. Then you spilled your teriyaki sauce all over the table at Rumbi and I realized you might have been just as nervous as I was.
I remember the young women retreat I went on. I counted down the hours until I got to go on our date. We went tubing at Soldier Hollow, to dinner at Bajio, and then to Vantage Point. That was the night you told me I was cool but you didn't want to date me.
I told you not to bother walking me to my door. I used to be much more brash than I am now. I responded to the pain of your rejection by trying to be strong and mean to you. More than two years later you would tell me that you had driven away from my house wondering if you had made a mistake.
It may have just been poor timing. For both of us. You were graduating and moving away to Logan. I didn't have things as figured out as I thought I did.
Somehow we stayed friends and coworkers at APX and then at Icon. And then you moved to Logan and I never really thought we would stay friends, as jealous as you made me telling me all about the girls you had kept warm at the outside movie. I remember being so frustrated at you.
I kept busy in PG with a new boyfriend and being a senior. I did visit Logan for a leadership conference, however, and when I did I saw you for a brief moment. You gave me the Warren Miller magazine for that year and then disappeared.
You got your mission call to Ghana and left. And I remember thinking as you turned down my offer for lunch that I would probably never see you again. I thought that would be the end of the story. But it wasn't.