Fairytale, Chapter 2: Girl Meets Boy's Friend

In case you missed it, read chapter 1. Sometime in February, one of our favorite bands, Relient K, was playing a concert in Des Moines. I had just started to wonder if Kels would ever date me. The feelings were starting to spring up and grow. Kelsey and I decided we would drive down to the concert together, meeting some of my friends halfway and following them to Des Moines. I thought this two-hour car ride was an awesome opportunity to broach the subject of dating. I've always been a coward when it comes to asking girls out. It was so much easier to talk to her when we were just friends. Now that I had feelings for her, every time I would think about bringing it up, all the thoughts of rejection entered my mind, and then my mind would play good conscience/bad conscience. "I'm sure she will say yes, you get along so well and have so much in common." "You idiot, she doesn't even think of you in that way, don't ruin the good friendship you already have."

{ Here is where a great story meets up with its good friend conflict. }

So, I decided that I would wait for the drive home to bring up the dating subject. That way, if she did reject me, it wouldn't ruin the entire evening (cue the suspense music). We get halfway there, where we meet up with my friends. We pull in the parking lot and meet my friend Garrett (the best man at our wedding). "Hey dude, what's up? Ready to roll?" "Yep! Let's go."

That was all it took. Kelsey proceeded to ask me about Garrett. "Who is that?" And then I had to tell her how cool my friend Garrett is. Oh, you know, he's the lead singer and songwriter in a Christan rock band (no big deal). The one thing I didn't want to tell the girl I liked was about how cool my best friend was. All hope was lost on the dating talk. She was instantly head over heels for my best friend. OUCH!

It wasn't her fault--that's just the way it went. Oh, me? I was fine (sniff sniff). I was totally supportive of her pursuing my best friend. That sound? Oh...just my heart shattering to pieces again.

The concert was a lot of fun, despite me shoving my emotions aside for the evening. Again, this was the time when MSN Messenger, Myspace and emailing were cool. On a scale of 1 to 10, I had a Web presence of about a 4 while Garrett and Kelsey were at an 11. This hurt my position with my best friend and with Kelsey. They started emailing one another,  quickly discovering how much they had in common. Frankly, this made me sick to my stomach 24-7. Not because I was disgusted, but because my heart hurt that much.

Kelsey: I honestly had no idea Eric was interested in a romantic relationship with me. We were such great friends, and the thought had never crossed my mind. However, his true character came out when he was actually helping me set up a date with Garrett, who lived two and a half hours away and was busy nearly every weekend with his band. Looking back, I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for Eric. He is such a good man!

{ Here's where the story gets really good...but patience is a virtue! You must wait until next Friday! }