WellSaid: A Date with the Mystery Man

Twelve years ago, on September 9, 2000, I got a phone call from a young man, asking me on a date. He told me what his name was, but I couldn't understand him. After asking him to repeat his name a couple times, I was too embarrassed to admit I still couldn't decipher his name. So I talked to a perfect stranger on the phone for over an hour when I should have been addressing my 300 page reading assignment in The History of the Jews.

The young man talked intelligently about the Holocaust, Germany, horsemanship, and he was obviously from the South-- a big bonus since I'm a Texan. At the end of our conversation, he said he was "actually looking forward to our date" which was kind of a weird thing to say, but at least I didn't have to wonder what he was thinking. I hung up the phone. I was in shock. I had just had the best conversation with a guy and I didn't even know who he was?!

I told my parents I would be gone that night because I had a date. Now my parents were in shock.

When the Mystery Man rang the doorbell, I sent my mom to answer the door so she could ask him his name. Nope. He was fresh back from a summer in Arkansas and she wasn't quite sure what his name was either. Our best guess was "Chris."

So we shrugged and I went on a date with "Chris." He held my car door open and I was greeted not only by the watermelon-scented car interior, but also by Kyle James and Deb Hatch. Oh, good. I knew them.

We all went to a Celtic concert at Thanksgiving Point. We sat high on a grass amphitheater facing the Waterfall Garden. Unfortunately, neither he nor I knew that it was an outdoor concert and we froze in the nighttime fall air!

By this time, I had established that his name was, indeed, Chris and that he was Kyle and Brom's roommate. After the concert, Chris and I walked along the edge of the water, looking at the waterfalls, and warming our hands. As we drove back to Orem, we talked about our dreams and how we thought our lives would go-- and strangely enough, our dreams were exactly the same, down to the smallest detail. We even knew which of our dreams would never happen.

We returned to the boys' apartment/James' home for hot cocoa with Sister James. I remember the phone ringing. It was for Chris. From what I could gather from his one-sided conversation on the phone, he'd just been through a big break-up. I sighed and sipped my cocoa. From the hurt in his voice, it sounded like he still loved her. I was a rebound date. Too bad. Chris was a nice guy: smart, polite, and easy to talk to. Well, it just goes to show that some things really are too good to be true.

We all loaded in the car and headed to the Provo Frontier Pies on University Parkway (since closed) to finish off the night. After a slice of pie, Chris dropped me off at home. Not a bad way to spend an evening, especially considering the pie.

Little did I know that at that precise moment, Kyle and Deb were clapping Chris on the shoulder and telling him that they had just witnessed Eternity in the Making.

It took Christopher one year, one month, and 10 days to get a ring on my finger, but he did it. Persistence pays off, or so he says. I'd say it's been a wonderful 10-- almost 11 years of marriage.

To celebrate the 12th Anniversary of our First Date, Christopher and I took the kids back to the place it all started and declared it a National Wells Family Holiday. Thanksgiving Point Gardens will always be one of my favorite places on earth.

Thanks to Grandma Ruby, Chris and I got to go out for pie at the Rexburg Frontier Pies Restaurant. But taking the kids there on Saturday wasn't an option, so we "settled" for Burgers and Pie Shakes at Sammy's. (I'll be very happy to "settle" there again next year! YUM!)