Our Story: the night(s) we met

I've been wanting to write Our Story for a while, but never really got around to it until now. Life has a tendency of getting in the way & the mundane everyday tasks or ominously important gotta-do-it-right-now jobs creep up the list of priorities. But we all know how that goes. To keep myself focused, I'll share "our story" in three parts: the night we met, before deployment, and during deployment. I'll preface the following story by saying his version of events and mine are different (obviously) but it's still the same.

Let's travel all the way back to 2013. To set the scene, when I first met Joey it was in a bar. My bar. The bar where I worked damn near every day for 2 years. At this time I had just moved, renting a room from a sweet & very understanding friend of a friend. My last serious relationship ended with horrendous lies, deceit, and heartbreaking betrayal that could easily resemble a tragic comedy / daytime soap opera, and I needed to relocate with a quickness. The night I met Joey was a Thursday; I was invited out to my bar by my new roommate & her boyfriend to hang out and enjoy my night off. That's how it normally goes - when you work in a bar, you tend to spend your nights off in the same bar. Seeing as how I was there so frequently, I actually discouraged customers from too much off-the-clock interaction. Anyone in that industry will understand. And that's why when I went out that night, I didn't put much effort into my appearance. I wore my favorite ballcap, which fits very low & allowed me to avoid any undesired eye contact.

my overexposed selfie from that night

Thursdays were never that crowded at the bar, and this night was no exception. As soon as I entered I walked to the main bar and waited my turn. A guy was already there waiting politely, so I posted up about 5 feet away from him, and refused to make eye contact (typical behavior on my nights off). When the bartender came down to our end of the bar, he immediately asked what I wanted. Assuming he was only helping me first because we worked together, I acknowledged the stranger next to me & told him "That guy was here first." This 'guy' responded with a simple "Ladies first," and even after I tried to make him order he refused to ask the bartender for anything. Not wanting to waste my friend's time, I quickly ordered my beer, the gentleman followed suit, and our bartender complied. Beer in hand, I turn to him & thanked him, telling him that not many people would have done what he did, to which he replied, "Well, I'm not from around here."  I raised my bottle in a cheers gesture and said "Neither am I." Before he could get too comfortable talking with me, I drank a sip & walked away to find my roommate. In all honesty, I forgot about that encounter until Joey told me about his first time meeting me (almost a year later). Even though he says that's when we met - and he's right because we did technically meet - for me it didn't really count.

While I was busy chatting with my roommate, Joey had gone upstairs to join his friends. He told them about this girl he just met, and how beautiful she was, and how down-to-earth she was, and how this chick was just what he's been looking for. He said he was going to get her number that night because he wanted to get to know her and learn more about her. In the time that he was plotting his next move, I was headed up to that group of guys to say "hi" to the boyfriend of my roommate. I have absolutely no idea Joey is there because I didn't even take notice of him when we ordered our drinks. I don't recognize him, I don't acknowledge him, and I don't stick around long. After a quick greeting, I wander away and find other people I know and continue my night. According to Joey, as I walked away he stared at my roommate's boyfriend in disbelief and blurted out, "Dude, that's the girl!!" and proceeded to interrogate the poor guy:  Who is she?? What's her story? Is she seeing anyone?

If you were to ask me, I'd tell you that the first time we met was about a week after that night, in a completely different bar. My roommate's boyfriend knew Joey was interested in me, and in keeping with Guy Code would not tell me but rather would assist in helping us meet again. He basically bullied me into agreeing to show up at a Buffalo Wild Wings for a "getting out of the Marine Corps" party for a guy I didn't even know. So one Tuesday night I walk into B-Dubs to hang out with my roommate & her man. This was the night that I met Joey, ha! ha!

I took my seat on the empty end of the table away from the crowd next to my roommate. After a few moments, a young good looking guy walked the length of the table & took a seat one chair away from me. "Oh great," I thought, "here we go... " Not surprisingly, he struck up a conversation. We talked briefly about our shared rural upbringings, our occupations, and our hunting excursions back home. We drank some beers. I nicked a promo PBR glass. Eventually turkey calls were imitated by the both of us, in some weird effort to impress each other.

Flash forward to 2016 & our wedding hashtag: #itallstartedwithturkeycalls