i only have eyes for you - part 3

Part 1

Part 2


I moved into my apartment the last weekend of October, 2002. I should mention that when I checked with this particular apartment complex in September regarding the availability of a one bedroom/one bath unit, there was nothing available. I returned to the complex once I was sure I was moving to town and they had one unit like the one I wanted.

One afternoon I was removing boxes from my trunk when a guy around my age walked to a Jeep parked next to my car. He said hello, I responded back and continued moving my boxes.

I loved living alone and was enjoying a new phase of young adulthood. I had met a guy at a Bible Study and had spent some time with him, but didn't really see things going beyond friendship. I had also met Sue, a wonderful Christian woman who became my local "mom". Sue and I would walk the track at the middle school 3-4 times each week and she got an earful when it came to my desire to be married.

One afternoon in late fall/early winter, Sue and I were sitting in my apartment and she just came out and said, I think your husband is within a 30 mile radius. I totally balked at this statement and told her that maybe he was within a 100 mile radius because then that would include several large cities. Larger cities meant larger prospects.

Turns out, it wasn't the size of the city that mattered - but rather the weather. Enter the Icestorm of 2002. December 4, 2002 to be exact.

I awoke that morning to sounds of crashing tree limbs. Looking outside, I saw the world covered in inches of ice. The sunshine reflecting off of the trees made for a sight to behold. It was beautiful, and the best part - I knew I would have at least a day off. I was about to go back to bed when I noticed another sight. The guy who said hello to me as I was moving in was walking around in the parking lot surveying all the damage.

Since moving in, I had checked him out through my peephole a couple of times (our doors - about 8 feet apart - faced each other) and noticed that no girls where coming or going out of his apartment. I thought, "Now's my chance to meet him".

I threw on some clothes (no time for a shower and the power was out anyway), a baseball cap, and my coat and gloves and walked nonchalantly down the stairs to the parking lot. Once at the parking lot, I quickly thought to get into my car, retrieve my ice scraper, and commence scraping the three feet of ice off of my car. Neighbor Guy (as I'll refer to him for now) was still walking around the parking lot and hadn't noticed me at this point.

I felt rather sheepish trying to scrape off my car. For starters, my little front-wheel drive Honda Accord was going nowhere on the skating rink that was our parking lot. Still, I pressed on and continued to attempt to clear the ice off my car. It was then that I noticed Neighbor Guy was headed my direction. Oh, shoot! I forgot to brush my teeth! Note to self: Don't stand too close to him.

NG: "Hey, how are you?!"

Me: "Hey. I'm fine, how are you?"

NG: "Good. Just thinking that we don't get weather like this where I'm from."

Me: "Oh yeah? Where are you from?"

NG: "Wilmington (NC), where its hardly winter."

Me: "Yeah, I'm kind of used to this somewhat, growing up in Charlotte and all. By the way, my name is Caroline."

NG: "Hi, I'm NG, nice to meet you."

Me: "I don't know what the point of me scraping my car off is, I'm not going anywhere today." (except to meet you - now I can check that off my list!)

NG: "I'm going to Wal-Mart in a little bit, wanna come?"

**At this point I heard the voice of my mother warning me never to go anywhere with strangers.

Me: Um, I think I'm good, but if you get cold over at your place (remember the power was off = no heat), I've got a wood-burning fireplace you're welcome to. (Geesh how forward of me!)

NG: Okay, thanks. (Goes back into his apartment)

Me: (walking back into my apartment) Doh! Stupid!

Okay, so that didn't go so well. But hey, we talked...I got to see him up close - very cute. He was about 6'4", well-built, light brown hair, goatee...yummy.

We didn't have another face to face encounter until after Christmas. It was dark and I was preparing to summit the mountain of steps going up to my apartment. NG was coming down. We stopped on the stairs, asked each other how our Christmases went, you know, awkward small talk between members of the opposite sex. He was headed to work and I was returning home from work. That was it.

That weekend, I was spending a quiet night alone, wishing that I had the money to rent a video from Blockbuster. All of sudden, I had an epiphany. I would go over to NG's house and borrow a video. After all, he's a guy, he's bound to have a vast array of films.

I knocked on the door, half expecting him not to answer, even though he was home (I had made sure his car was in the parking lot). He answered and I asked to borrow a movie. He invited me in and again I heard my mother's voice cautioning me not to enter a boy's home alone.

I perused his video library, selected Terminator 2 and was about to leave when he invited me to sit down...