Well of course Hunter just wanted to be my friend, but of course he still wanted to treat me otherwise, as if he were holding my heart in his hand out of his car window, speeding down the highway as it tattered apart like paper. Of course.
He wasn't following the rules, but buddy, I was. The texting didn't slow down, nor did the constant asking to hang out together. One night, he was having my best friend and a couple of her friends over to play poker with him and his roommates. He asked me to join, but I had a company picnic to go to with my family. He begged...... and begged....... and begged me to come over afterwards. I told him I would stop by for 5 minutes. When I got back into Franklin, I went over to his apartment and literally kept up with the time on my phone. His face brightened up when I entered the room, but quickly turned into the saddest eyes when my five minutes was up. I will NEVER forget the puppy dog look he gave me as I exited his apartment.
When I got home, he texted me. (Of course...)
"Why didn't you stay for very long?"
"Because I saw you yesterday. And we said we weren't gonna see each other everyday."
"Oh. Well, you looked really pretty."
"Hunter, please don't say stuff like that. We're just friends."
"Ok. Well you did. I guess I'll just talk to you tomorrow."
And he still didn't learn his lesson. What about HIS conclusion that we just needed to be friends did he not understand? Telling a girl that you have feelings for her, then telling her that you just needed to be friends, then continuing to pursue her emotionally is NOT ok. I honestly was ready to walk away.
He called me the next day and asked what we were going to do that night.
"Why would you assume that we're going to hang out? I already told you. FRIENDS DON'T NEED TO HANG OUT EVERY SINGLE DAY."
"WELL WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO BE FRIENDS? WHAT IF I WANT TO BE MORE THAN FRIENDS?!"
And just like that, he cracked. I was still a little frustrated, but so full of complete satisfaction that showing him how our 'friendship' was going to go quickly turned into a complete turn-around on his part. We talked for a while about what our next steps would be since we both agreed that a stupid 'friendship' just wasn't going to cut it. He really wanted to be sensitive to his ex-girlfriend and not shout to the whole world that he and I were now an item. So we decided that we were going to 'secretly' date, ha. Yeah, that didn't last long. He couldn't handle everyone asking him what was going on between us and was ready to start hanging out and getting to know me as his 'girlfriend' without any boundaries, so we started hanging out one on one. We would sit on opposite ends of the couch and talk for hours. It was such a blessing. He would text me afterwards to tell me how refreshing our conversations were and to tell me how he couldn't stop smiling. One night, we were at his apartment with several friends, but had previously planned to watch a movie- just the two of us- and so we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed up to my place. Man. I did not expect what was to come next.
Our first time out as a couple came with lots............. and lots............. and lots of drama, it scared the poop out of me. I had no idea that by dating Hunter Lamb, I would feel like such a horrible person. I was causing hurt to someone without even trying to cause hurt. Hunter got about 100 phone calls that night from his friends asking if he and I were together, only, it wasn't him that called to notify all of them. They were, for the most part, supportive. His girl friends questioned him about it, but they were only being protective because they saw Hunter's future with someone else. I sat there in shock hearing Hunter repeat to me all the things that had been said about me, and I just remember sitting on my couch having to listen to Hunter on the phone being chewed out by his ex-girlfriend's younger sister. Let me tell you, Hunter is so so so so slow to anger but that night I heard him yell in frustration and throw his phone across the room. That's the only time I've EVER seen him act that way. The only question that came to my mind that night was "God...... are you sure this is ok?"
Despite what was being thrown at him, Hunter wasn't looking back. He told me he wanted to take me out on a real date and for us to have a really special night. August 15, 2005 was the first time I went on an official date with Hunter. My whole family knew about it, too! My younger sister took the liberty of calling him to tell him that 'he better not try to kiss me because I had never been kissed and he needed to wait for the perfect night, in the perfect moment.' Gotta love sisters.
We went to dinner and afterwards, took a walk through downtown Franklin. When we were headed back to the car, I stopped him before we walked across the street and asked "If you were going to introduce me to someone, how would you introduce me?"
His answer: "I would say, 'This is my girlfriend, Heather."
I, Heather Clark, had a boyfriend. Hallelujah!!!!
When he took me home, I was expecting nothing more than a hug and an "I'll call you tomorrow." but as we stood at the bottom of my stairwell, we hugged and he said "Can I kiss you?"
I think I'm gonna throw up.
"What? Right now???"
"No, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that.... we don't have to....."
I just held his face, smiled and calmly explained that I was overwhelmed that he was going to be my first kiss, but that I wasn't ready. His sweet face turned bright red and we called it a night. Clearly he didn't listen to a word my sister had told him :)
We had our first kiss about a week later and then three short weeks after that, he told me that he loved me. A year and four months after we started dating, he asked me to marry him and on August 25, 2007 I married the first boyfriend that I ever had.
God is so good.
