It’s been awhile since I’ve had any wedding talk on here, so I thought I’d go ahead and get all sappy again. This is the story of how I met my fiance…and couldn’t stand him. And – lucky you – he’s decided to chime in with his side of the story as well!

How I met my fiance and almost instantly disliked him by Chelsea

I met Nate for the first time when I was walking down our dorm hallway. He poked his head out of his room and cheerily introduced himself, suggesting that I come play video games sometime. I told him I might (not thinking he was serious because really, do I look like the video game-playing type?) and forgot about it.

A couple months later we were at the same counter in the dining hall so I casually said hi and asked how he was doing. He responded abruptly: “Do I know you?” I reminded him that we lived on the same dorm floor and that he knew my roommate, Melissa. He shrugged, “I don’t know anyone named Melissa.” Umm okay ass-hat, she said you two were friends and I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t make that up for no apparent reason. Feeling kind of awkward, I suggested that maybe he’d been drinking when we met and that MIGHT be why he didn’t remember me. I thought I was giving him a valid excuse – a way out of this awkward conversation that 90% of college students would have jumped at. But not Nate. He acted all offended, responding that he doesn’t drink at all so that isn’t possible. Exasperated, I decided he was just forgetful and kind of a jerk, and angrily stomped off with my food.

Feeling totally snubbed, convinced he remembered me and just pretended not to know who I was, I did the only logical thing I could think of and preceded to shoot dirty looks at Nate every time I saw him in the hallway. [Note: I was 19. I've matured a lot in the last 6 years. I swear]. After a few months of this he walked straight up to me one day and said, “Hi, I’m Nate.”

“I know,” I responded. “We’ve met. Several times.”

“Well then,” he grinned, ”Since I know you and you know me, I thought that you could maybe stop glaring at me every time you see me.”

How could I say no to that?

How I met my fiance and instantly dubbed her “Hot Girl” by Nate

Well, everything Chelsea said is true, but she told it all wrong. The fact of the matter is that she and I really ran into each other on the bridge between our dorm and the neighboring dorm. It was there that I first saw her and immediately thought to myself, “I knew there would be hot girls at college!” Our first conversation went as Chelsea described, but I really thought she would come by later and when she didn’t, my feelings were hurt. My roommate and I had dubbed her “Hot Girl,” and I would think about her from time to time out of nowhere, contemplating the “what ifs” of how I could get her to like me and what I would talk to her about. I had my first college crush…and only met her once.

After Chelsea stopped glaring at me, we exchanged numbers before she went home for summer break and wound up talking on the phone for a long time. I proudly took note of the fact that our conversation lasted more than three hours, and figured that in itself must mean something. She’d go on long vacations with her family and still take time to talk to me. “Surely,” I thought, “she must like me.” But then she informed me that she had ‘lots of guy friends.’ [Note from Chelsea: I'm gonna butt in here, since it's my blog and, well, I can do what I want. I was attempting to clarify the fact that occasionally I'd go out with some close male friends - who were like brothers to me if anything - and occasionally I'd crash on their couch. I didn't want Nate to get the wrong impression about this].  ”Never mind,” I thought. “She must just see me as a friend.” But then when she was back home, she’d drive almost an hour each way to see me. I wondered, “This can’t be what she would do for a ‘guy friend’…is it?”

I decided to take her on a date of sorts. We walked into our college town, where I put her through a series of mini-tests to see if she could possibly stand me for more than a day. On the way, I made a joke about how I moonlight as a crack dealer’s bodyguard in order to make extra money. She just responded flatly “Oh…okay.” [Note from Chelsea: Seriously, a crack dealer's bodyguard? Does anyone else get this joke? I think he was making a reference to the fact that he's really big and tall and looks like he could be a bodyguard, but it totally went over my head]. She clearly wasn’t picking up on my humor. I then took her to my favorite magazine stand. This was to make sure that if in fact she just wanted to be friends, I would appear to simply be making the rounds to my favorite little spots, and not going straight to date-type locations. “Smooth,” I thought.

Knowing full well that I should also feed her, I took her to Baja Fresh. I struck up a conversation based on all the tips I could soak up from dating movies. “Let her talk about herself. Keep good but not creepy eye contact. Don’t eat food that makes you look like a pig.” Well, I let her talk about herself, but had a miserable time with the rest. For some reason, this girl had eyes that made me cower in my seat. No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep eye contact. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MEEEEE?” I thought. This NEVER happens to me. I could stare down a Nazi, but for some reason her gaze made me feel like Schmeegle from Lord of the Rings, and perhaps if I didn’t look at them she wouldn’t notice. And like a moron, I ordered the largest burrito they made, which I now had to awkwardly force myself to eat with bites ¼ my typical size. It was eating torture, but she couldn’t see me eat the way I normally do. That would be the end of it.

Finally, we went to see the new movie in town, Wedding Crashers. She sat next to me and subtly made her hand available for me to hold. “GUY FRIEND!” I warned myself. I thought if I acted on a mistaken signal, I’d lose even the possibility to be her friend. I feared that the girl I idolized from the first day I met her - Hot Girl - would look at me with disgust and walk out if she knew I was interested in her that way. So, I did nothing. [Me again. In spite of his bizarro crack dealer reference, I was really starting to like him at this point and was mortified when he cowered away from my hand as if I had leprosy. After this, I was convinced he just wanted to be friends].

I also noticed she wasn’t laughing at all during the movie, and figured there must be something wrong. She later told me she was just really nervous and only paying attention to me the whole time, but I thought she didn’t have a sense of humor. That would have been a deal breaker, which sucked because she was hot. After the movie, we hugged goodbye, and went our separate ways. I was sure she would never talk to me again. I’m happy I was wrong.

Go check out what happened on our second date!