Part 7: The Plot Thickens

Arriving at the Salt Lake City International Airport, we were faced with the task of finding a way back to Provo. Luckily Allen found some random kid he knew, and we got a ride home with him. While in the car, Allen was joking to the kid about how Amanda was afraid to even call me her boyfriend, to which she responded "nah uh!" So then I turned to her questionly and asked why she'd never said it before. Before long everyone in the car was chanting, "Do it! Do it! Do it!" We were so busy prodding her on that we almost swerved into an oncoming semi.
Very timidly, so quietly that only I could hear it, she said it: "You're my boyfriend."

Yay! At long last some progress was made! Luckily over Thanksgiving everyone had worked hard to bring her to this point, since everyone but me knew she was secretly in love with me already. On Thanksgiving Day some people came to the Morse's and when they saw me and Amanda at the table, they exclaimed, "That's right! You're married now!"

We were eating tamales another day at someone's house and looked at Amanda and said, "You're in love, right?" She replied with a "maybe," which in Amanda-speak means yes 95% of the time unless it means no.

One night we were gathered around the fireplace taking turns at saying what we were thankful for. I of course said I was thankful for all of them and their hospitality and was anxious to hear what Amanda had to say. Her turn came up and the first thing she was thankful for was her cat. Then the next thing...............air! And then....................grass! And that was it! She was more thankful for air and grass than she was for me. Naturally this worried me, and that brings us back to the question everyone's been dying to know: Just what was it she wanted to tell me that final night?

I couldn't sleep at all that night. When sleep did overtake me, I was plagued with night terrors. "I never wanna see you again!" I could see her storm off in disgust as she drowned herself in the ocean.
"You're a freak! Get out of my life!"
"I can't believe I wasted a precious week of my life in your presence!"
"I'm sorry, Chris (or was it Curt? I can never remember), but I think we should just be friends."

Finally morning came and we were on that plane and then on that car, finally arriving back to where we started. My fears of that last quote were extinguished with the pronouncement that we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but the question still lingered. What did she have to tell me? Was it anything at all? No amount of prodding on the plane would help. She just wouldn't budge. She didn't have the courage to turn me away in public. I expected to get a Dear John any day.
Luckily, I didn't have to wait any more days to find out. We convened for lunch the very same day we came home. It was nice out, so we decided to take a walk and sit at a table outside. There, my secret plan would unfold.

"So, what were you going to tell me?"

"Your shoe's untied," she replied simply and started to walk away.

"Not so fast," I pulled her back onto the bench.

Finally, after almost twenty minutes of silence, she turned to me with a smile. "I want to come home with you for Christmas."

And then it happened. In that moment of joy, there on the bench in broad daylight, we had our first kiss.

Just kidding.