Our Story: Part 5 "Hanging Out"

Several days after our first hike, we got together again, this time for breakfast.  These "friendly" get togethers took place over the next six weeks or so.  We would usually do breakfast or coffee once or twice a week. Sometimes we would have dinner with my roommates or go to Sunday night church together.  Nothing too serious.

I know what you're thinking, "Why are you still hanging out with this guy if you aren't interested (or at least you say you aren't interested)?"  I was asking myself the same thing.

I think deep down, if I was being honest with myself, part of the reason I continued to see him was because he was 'safe'.  I wasn't really falling for him, but he was keeping my mind off dating anyone else and he wasn't really a threat.  He wasn't pushy and he was respectful.  We weren't very serious so I still had plenty of time to grow myself individually, which had been my whole goal all along.

Plus, who doesn't like to have someone interested in them.  It's nice to know that you have someone who will want to hang out on Friday night.  It's flattering to be wanted.

Sometimes I even thought, "this guy will definitely get sick of me and start to show his true colors."  I mean honestly, it had been 6 weeks without so much as a HUG.  No guy is that 'nice'!  I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, for his nice guy 'act' to wear off.

There was also the influence of my friends.  Several of my teammates, including my best friend and roommate, Lesley, had class with him.  They would come home and tell me how funny he was and what a nice guy he is.  I felt like they all wanted to keep him around more than I did.  Plus he makes a KILLER apple pie, so that didn't hurt either.

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After all this time, I still wasn't feeling any sort of spark.

As a matter of fact, I often told my girlfriends that he was kind of boring.  

It wasn't that he lacked creativity (some of our get togethers were actually very original), but his personality seemed boring.  He always seemed so serious, he rarely cracked jokes, he was very literal during our conversations (I can be a bit sarcastic), he even sat stilted most of the time.  While my girlfriends said he was witty and humorous in class, I barely got a wise crack out of him.  And I always felt like everything that came out of his mouth was calculated and carefully measured and then analyzed after he said it.  That just isn't my style.

The day before I left for my 21st Spring Break birthday in Florida with my girlfriends, Phil took me out for my birthday.

That evening our 'relationship' took a VERY pivotal turn...

At least in his mind!