The Story of Us

I walked into Ultramax on Broadway & 7th. It was launch night for a running group I'd been coaching for some time called Project Awesome. I was looking around the store full of people at the 5:45pm start. The room was full of new faces and during a horizontal scan my eyes landed on a beautiful blonde wearing some fancy bright running clothes. I fashioned my own reasons to sashay to the left behind some clothing racks to get a better look. I remember instantly seeing her shiny green eyes and big white smile. I knew at that moment I needed a reason to talk to her before the night was over. So after the workout, I went straight to her with nothing well-planned to say and uttered, "So are you in school at Mizzou (assuming she was in grad school)?" and she said "Um no, graduated undergrad there and finished grad school two years ago." Insert mic drop. I felt dumb so I said "Ahh, Okay." I checked her out for a couple more weeks, every Wednesday, at our group run, slipping in a hopeful comment here and there. I tried to find reasons to talk to her but she was holding her cards tight. Eventually, in a moment of clarity and confidence, finding myself in a quasi convo, I asked for her digits while we were running back to the store after a workout by the public library. After talking for a while we decided our first date would be out on the water at Finger Lakes State Park. We had a great time canoeing, swimming, and going to dinner and ending up in yet another pool by the end of the night. I even pretended to be Patrick Swazye at one point and tried the lift thing from Dirty Dancing (yes, I conquered). So to this day we love anything by and near the water as will be the day I seal the deal on having this girl in my life forever.

Guest author: Casey Buckman