Another Suitor For The Princess

ETA: So after posting this I was looking through some old posts and saw that I've already posted this story! Last night I was looking through my old drafts to find inspiration and saw this gem, and thought I hadn't posted it. Well, I was wrong, but since it's my blog, I'm going to finish the series because I like it better than the last draft I did. So there.


Alright everybody. I've talked about some of the non-prince blokes...it's time for Jake to take the stage. The timeline is a little jumpy, but stay with me. It will be worth it.

GQ Magazine called...

Jake and I met for the first time when I was 16. Like I've said before, my parents moved our family to a little town in Northern California at the end of 2004. It was fairly traumatic, but shortly after moving I started making friends and feeling more comfortable. I got involved with a church very quickly, as did my parents. So involved, in fact, that my parents hosted the staff meeting for 2005's youth summer camp at their house early that spring. That was the first time I laid eyes on Jake. I thought he was cute, but quickly forgot about him. After all, he was obviously too old for me, considering he was at the staff meeting.

We ran into each other at youth camps over the next two years. He was going to college out of the area and was only home for during the summer and Christmas break. Coincidentally those were the times that youth camps were scheduled. At one winter camp I did develop a wee bit of a crush on him. However, very quickly after camp I moved on. He was not an option anyways, since he was five years older. At 16 that is a huge difference. At the following summer camp I found myself flirting with Jake again. Now that I had actually talked with him for some time, I thought he was a very nice guy. One who obviously loved the Lord. One who had some direction in life. One who was smart and funny. One who had gotten cuter since the last time I'd seen him. But, that summer I happened to be engrossed in my drama with The Frog, and when camp was over I forgot about Jake once again.

Fast forward to February, 2007. I was at a girls retreat. It was at this retreat that I really faced that fact that I had a bad habit of throwing my heart at guys who weren’t really worth my time. That is what I had done with The Crush. It was what I had done with The Frog. I had trusted my value, my self-esteem, and my whole life to these guys without even a shady promise of anything in return. I let myself become completely infatuated with these boys waaaaaaay to early and always ended up getting really hurt. I made a commitment to God that weekend that I would stop doing that. I would stop trusting random guys with my heart so quickly. Maybe I should have at least one conversation with them first. Just a thought.

Rewind real quick to a month before. I had started going to a different church than the one my family had been attending. I had been invited by a friend and really liked it. It just so happened that Jake's family went to this church. It just so happened that he had been coming home from college on the weekends and was going to that church. It just so happened that the friend who had invited me was also friends with Jake. It just so happened that we ended up sitting next to each other at church on more than one occasion. The week before this weekend in February we had been having a discussion about ways to study the Bible.

Ok, back to February. So I made this commitment to guarding my heart. And I was serious about it. Never again would I assume a guy was interested in me and promptly give away my heart. I was going to be responsible.

The very next day at church I was sitting next to Jake and he handed me a piece of paper. On it was Psalm 19 typed out and covered in hand written notes. “It’s an example of how to study a chapter,” he told me. Anyone else would have thought "That's nice of him." My mind immediately thought "Oh he likes me, look at all this effort. WAIT! Nope, I'm not going there." I thanked him for the paper and promptly tried to forget it ever happened. Do you see a pattern yet? Jake was the guy I kept trying to forget about. He was too good for me. I was supposed to end up with a troubled guy. I just knew it. Jake was too...too...nice.

How was I going to NOT fall for him?

For the next few weeks at church it seemed like he was sitting next to me on purpose. If we weren't sitting next to each other, he'd pass me a note, just to say hello. It was becoming harder and harder not to assume he liked me. And he was handsome. And he was nice to me. And, and, and… He started coming to lunch after church with my group of friends. By the end of March he started coming into my work. I could tell he didn't drink coffee regularly, but he was coming in anyways. We started emailing back and forth about various things. God, movies, music, work, life, even the future. He was very sly, working in the big questions with the less important ones. "What's your favorite movie? I like (blahblahblah). Also, where do you see yourself working in ministry in the future?" "Do you like to hike? How big of a family do you see yourself with?" Sneaky, right? Apparently, because I totally didn't catch on. I was trying so hard to ignore any hints that I missed them completely.

Despite my determination to stay neutral, I WAS beginning to like him. He was fun. He was funny. He and I had a lot of the same interests. I started trying to make ways for us to hang out. My car was making a funny noise, so I called him. He knew a lot about cars, so I thought he might be able to help. *innocent smile* We both had dogs, so maybe we could take them to the lake together. *innocent smile* 

He was on to me, and there was a big problem: I was still technically in high school and he was working with youth ministry at our church. That was a big no-no.

Stay tuned to see what happens next. I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. ;)

PART TWO