Continued III

The next day was a Monday and back to work I went. I have to admit that I got up a little earlier and felt a new type of energy flowing through my body. Now this was a time before cell phones and being able to contact people in a second by picking up the electronic device on your hip that would magically make the electronic device on their hip ring or vibrate.

We had made plans for him to come over to hang out. I think it was around 6:30 when he came over. We just kinda hung out at the house and talked. Again it was such a great conversation. I was totally falling head over heels for him. I stopped calling him by his last name and started calling him Te. From that day on we were inseparable. Everyday after work like clock work he would be at my apartment. I would be waiting patiently. My life was slowing down with him as well. I was slowly changing from partying every night to looking forward to just being with him. We would go to the movies, out to dinner, or just simply hang out on the couch. I was learning more and more about him and he was learning about me as well. Before I knew it I was not just falling in love with him....I was in love with him.

I introduced him to my friends and he introduced me to his. We spent many nights hosting get togethers at the condo. I was loving this new found togetherness. How lucky was I to find such a great guy among the vast sea of losers out there. I soon felt that we had been together for years. Like I had not known a time without him. I loved his friends and he loved mine.

Hyde, Flores, and Mendez were Te's buddy's. The all lived in the same barracks and they were a riot. Four guys that couldn't have been more different but that got along so well you would have thought that they came from the same mother. Hyde was Asian and was so into cars. Not new ones but vintage ones. He was very particular in the way that he dressed and the company he kept. He was also a big guy, not fat but built like a sumo that wasn't over weight. Flores was Mexican and gaaaaaangsta, what a sweetie. He loved his cars, would tack his pants to the back of his shoes and could drink like a fish. Mendez was the grandpa of the group. I say grandpa but I think he was something like 27. He was married but his wife had a really good job in FL and he was finishing out his tour so he could move home and they could settle down. Mendez would do crazy stuff, like painting blue circles all over his barracks walls.....just because. He was such a sweet heart. He could crack you up with the best of them but he was always very respectful. I would love it when we all got together and hung out. I would be crying from laughing so hard. Even though I would go with Te to the barracks, I would never stay. My Dad was in the Army and no way would I be caught spending the night in the barracks. So often I would invite everyone to the condo and we would party there.

Before we knew it the days were starting to warm up and winter was starting to fade away. this happens early in the south. By March you can pack your jackets away and start enjoying the outdoors. Te's unit had orders for Kuwait and even though I knew the time was coming I was in sweet denial about it. We just kept spending our days together, enjoying ourselves and immersed in each other as if we were the only two people in the world. In fact some of our friends even said that we would get sick of each other of we kept spending so much time together. Whatever, what did they know I was in love and enjoying every minute of it.

I took Te to meet my parents and they loved him. No if, ands, or buts about it, Jeanine and Lisa loved him too and were thrilled that I was happy and that I had found someone so great to spend my time with. In fact everyone loved Te, it was impossible not to. He is just the type of person that people like to be around. His smile and laughter contagious.

His heart was as great as his jokes and he respected me. Respected the fact that I wanted to take it slow. There was never any pressure from him for me to do anything. Our lives just started to intertwine like ivy growing on the same branch. With every passing day our hearts were melting into one instead of two. I found total bliss with him and was loving the fact that I had become one half of a whole that really was working on every level. Now don't get me wrong we would have our disagreements but they never lasted more than a day and were usually over silly little things. We vowed never to leave each other angry.

I cant remember exactly when but soon marriage started to creep up in our conversations. Not a proposal but what we both thought marriage was and what we wanted our lives to be like. We talked about children and the fact that I wanted to wait until I was 25 was a big point of mine. His mother never married so a part of me wondered if this was a path that he may also want to take. My parents had been married for over 20 years and marriage to me was a must. We talked about our careers and what paths we would take. He was unsure of his. He spoke about moving back home after his tour and being close to his family and childhood friends. I spoke about traveling and getting the heck out of Hinesville. I thought that all roads dead ended there and I wanted to spread my wings and fly. This soon became a major conversation that we would have while laying on he couch. I am talking hours and hours, of what each others future dreams were. With every passing conversation I began to realize that our dreams were forging a path in the same direction. I came to the realization that "Oh my God, he is the one".

Te' spent so much time at my apartment that the chair in my bedroom started to look like a tree made out of his clothes. So, one day when he came over I opened up a drawer and showed him that I had emptied it......for his "stuff". Boy if people thought that we were annoying before, they probably started gagging after that. We spent every waking moment together, other than work it was me and him, him and I, us, whatever you want to call it it was just simply "US".

As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months we both knew that his deployment was coming up. In my head I thought that maybe it would get delayed or that he wouldn't have to go. It was only for 2 1/2 months. Not that long but when you are 20 and head over heels it sounds like an eternity. We crammed all our time together. Every second that we could be together we were. No one else existed....it was just us, until April 1st, 2006. We woke up extra early that day and I drove him to his unit. I saw Hyde, Flores, Mendez, and Kenny. I wished them all well and went back to the car to talk with Te. My heart was breaking in a million pieces and I didn't want it too. I wanted to hold on to him as tightly as I could. If I close my eyes I can I still remember the way the early morning air was as heavy as an elephant and how the smell of his BDU's were intoxicating. If I don't let go he wont go right, No I couldn't do that, I couldn't even say that. I had to leave, I had to get out of there it was just too painful. We said our good byes and I went back home. A few minutes after I had cried myself to sleep the phone rang. It was him. He forgot his lock in the back of the car. I had to drag myself out of bed and back to his unit. The second time felt like a dagger ripping through me. I had to be strong and if our relationship was meant to last then it would. If you love something set it free, if it's meant to be it will find its way back to you.

After about three days I heard from Te. He was in Kuwait and he was settling in. The phone call was brief but I was so glad to have heard from him.

In the mean time I decided to move back in with my parents. So I took all my stuff, My car and Te' Car and headed back home. Yes the whole 10 minutes up the road was a long journey but a much needed one.

Then the letters started. He would call when he could which was about once a week so we had to write. We received mail from each other everyday. Some days I would get two or three letters. All of the envelopes would have pictures drawn on them. Sometimes of pyramids and camels, sometimes with a little houses and trees. The next two months were long to say the least. I had started running with a wife of one of the soldiers that Donte worked with. I would run everyday, like the wind. I would take all of my new found loneliness out on the track. I would go until I was drenched in sweat and dying of thirst. I loved it. Pretty soon it was June and I had gone from working at the school to working as a registrar at the hospital. The money was better and I needed a change. The district was making cut backs and I wanted to have stability in my job.

I had also found a new obsession other than running. I was called care packages. I would find the biggest box that I could(that was mailable) and I would stuff it full of anything and everything that I could. From Kool-Aid to beef jerky those boxes had it all. I made sure that there was enough for Te, and for Hyde, Mendez, Kenny, and Flores. I needed for all of them to know that I was still thinking of them.

Through the letters and the phone calls we decided to move in together when he came back. My Mom and her friend Charlotte helped me and before I knew it we found the cutest little apartment. 101 E. Hendry Street was going to be our home. It was on the end of main street and must have been a grand home in the past. It had been renovated into 4 apartments, 2 one bedroom and 2 two bedrooms. I filled out the lease and went to speak with the property managers secretary. The property manager happened to be the father of one of the girls I went to high school with and everything went really quickly. I had signed the lease and paid my deposit. I had a great 2 bedroom apartment with two balconies for $300 a month. Now this was not a dump. It was a great deal. Today it probably rents for at least $800 a month. I was so excited to get this place unpacked and decorated I could barely think straight.

My anticipation level was so high. I had less than two weeks and Te would be home. The letters that we had been sending only drew me closer to him. Maybe I couldn't be with him physically but my love kept growing. I had never felt like this with anyone else. Anyone else would have been promptly dumped and I would have moved on, but not with Te.

One night at about three in the morning I got a phone call....they had been extended. I could hear the anger in his voice, anger I had never heard before. "How long" I asked? "Two months" was the reply. I was dumbfounded, shocked, what could I say? I wanted to talk but the words wouldn't come, but the tears did. My mind was swirling, am I dreaming? This cannot be right. He had to go. All I heard was "I love you". Two more months, two more months.....really? I felt my heart break, I felt sick.

I threw myself into my running, work and getting our apartment put together. My girlfriends were a constant and so was my family. The love letters got deeper and the content of what the ink was pouring onto the paper was nothing short of amazing. I would run to the mailbox when the post man would come and could hardly make it back inside to open the letters that I would receive. I then received a letter that brought all of my true feeling to the forefront. Every time we would talk the conversation would go to marriage, and our thoughts, and the one days. I had already thought that he was the one. I supposed I knew it from very early on but was not the one to tell him. It was a mans place to bring all of that up. Call me old fashioned....it's who I am. This letter was long just like all the rest. except for the part that was written to my father, the part that asked for my fathers permission to ask me to marry him. To let him have the chance to make all my dreams come true, to love me unconditionally and to treasure me. I think I read it about a million times. Of course my father gave his blessing and the next time we talked I gave him my answer. A little unconventional maybe but it meant just as much as if were face to face.

I was getting married....married.

The time started to fly and we settled on little civil ceremony with the promise that a church wedding would follow at a later date.

On the morning of August 15th I returned from working an all nighter at the hospital. I quickly changed and straightened up the apartment as quickly as I could. At 11AM I headed out to soldier field on Fort Stewart. I was so very nervous. I had cut my hair and lost a ton of weight from all of the running. Would he know me, how had he changed? As I stood there feeling a little out of place. I was the only "girlfriend" amongst the sea of parents, wives, and children. I knew no one really and didn't know what to expect. The sun was blaring above and wasn't helping at all. Finally I saw the buses coming. Oh my would I be able to spot him? As the buses parked and someone said some mumbo jumbo, I scanned the faces coming off of the buses.....where was he? Then I saw him. Dusty and dirty and carrying about a ton of Army stuff on his back there he was. I stood there not quite knowing what to do. There were hundreds of people all around but all I could see was him. I was wearing sunglasses and I could feel the sweat.....did I look OK. He was obviously searching the crowds.....he waked right pass me. Ross(one of the guys he worked with) was like "hey Slade" He turned around, and as he did I took the shades off , our eyes met and in a flash he was holding me. In his arms.....the rest is all a blur. We went right to the hospital to get the blood tests done(GA law) and then to the apartment. He was home and finally this apartment felt like "Our Home". The next morning My Mom, Dad, Brother, Jeanine, and Kenny met Te and I at the Liberty County Court House. On August 16th, 2006 we both tearfully took out vows. I was 20 and he was 22. My heart was full.