this is the story of a boy & a girl

let me tell you about seth.
i want to start with the very night we met and continue in segments until i feel that our story is shared. the boy i love is my best friend and i want to document how he changed my world.

it all began november 11th. (we think) (we're pretty sure) i had gotten into this fabulous groove in my life-for lack of better words- a groove that was routine, comfortable, all about me.. you know, when you're a single student in college and your whole world literally does revolve around you, because this is the time in your life when you are supposed to be completely selfish and focus all your energies on who you'll become. so yes, the groove. i worked and went to school full time, at the present i was working at project reality, the substance abuse clinic i devoted 5 or less hours of sleep a night for two years to. (what 21 year old can get themselves to bed before midnight for their 5am job?) so i was having long days and all about me free time. i worked out, i read books, i went on little trips by myself, i had a weekly nail painting routine.. really. and actually i had just started fostering a sweet little-big cat named gino. (RInmhpuP)
it was just a regular day for me me me. it was a wednesday, so i most likely had a late day the next day at work, which meant i had a few extra hours. i was taking out the trash on my way to the gym and lucky for me (and seth) i was wearing my cut off hot pink running shorts and my texas hot hair balloon t shirt that my dad got as a child when his parents went on a trip and forgot to get him a souvenir so stopped at a mavrick on the way home.
it was a pretty regular day for seth too. he had gotten home from a summer installing security systems in september and had moved up to orem and into our complex (and soon, into my heart-aw) in october. he was installing here and there and doing service calls sporadically while living the good life in utah county.
that night he had another tech's car whom he was supposed to pick up in salt lake in a few hours. he had been cleaning it out with the stereo on and realized the battery had died a little bit later when he finished. with his brother's car pulled up next to it and no jumper cables to be found, he started asking random passer-by if they could loan him some. a small asian man was on his way to get some when moi walked out to the dumpster, trash in hand.
i remember it was freezing and rather dark outside, with only one little light right near the dumpster. i was probably texting any number of suitors and not paying attention to the poor fellow with the dead battery 20 feet away who swiftly and quietly approached from behind.
"excuse me," (these are the first words seth ever said to me.)
before i go on to how i jumped 4 feet into the air and nearly decked him, i must tell you something that is hard to explain in human talk.
those words, the lilt of his voice, his breath between them... something tilted inside me. i recognized his voice. and more than that, i knew- i knew something was going to change. in the tiny tiny seconds between those words and my jump, i accepted that my world was about to be completely altered, that the person i was turning around to meet was someone significant.
-jumping commenced-
"i'm sorry, did i scare you?" with his little half chuckle that i swear he does to attract innocent girls.
i believe i nodded at this point, while looking frantically but not obviously to see if he had a ring on. nope.
(then he must not be wearing it. his blond, leggy wife is surely sitting up there in their apartment waiting for him.)
"i can't believe i'm even asking you for this, but do you have jumper cables?"
i think i did something slightly bratty, which i suppose is my way of flirting and shows that i am still really immature, relying on my elementary school experiences to rope the men in. something like rolled my eyes a little and laughed in a -you're a man and you don't have jumper cables- sort of way. but i said, "no i don't have any-- but i can find some!" which ruined my moment of playing hard to get, or whatever i think that is, and turned me back into the drooling idiot who at that point would have ran apartment to apartment to find those jumper cables. i think i then said something like, "i'll go get some, stay right here." (please please please don't move or find any other jumper cables before i get back.)
i ran inside, told my roommate anna that i had just met the hottest guy in the world, did she have jumper cables, we have to go right now, hopping from foot to foot.
we went outside and i switched back to cool karlee -er, yeah. and we got him set up and the car started. then we stood on the curb and he talked our ears off for about a half hour. i learned that he lived with his sister, he worked in the security industry, a few other tales. that's the first thing i learned about my seth- he can talk. i mostly remember being freezing, that he had the cutest laugh in the world, and that i had no makeup on. i also remember him asking what apartment we lived in and me giggling and trying to answer but saying the wrong numbers until anna took over.
eventually he asked, "so.. what about you girls? do you have boyfriends, husbands?" to which i think anna shook her head with a smile and i jumped and shouted, "no! nope! no boyfriend here. no sir-ee." (at this point you can see that all game is lost. thanks for trying to teach me though, chris cooley.)
then seth went on with something like how we should hang out sometime and asked if he could get one of our numbers- and i totally thought he was going for anna! no way was i going to offer mine. and then he looked at me and i started yelling out numbers in the wrong order and all sorts of nerves.
ok, not that bad. i just said in a small voice, "sure you can have mine, if you want it i mean, that is."
and he smiled with that dimple and he got my number and folks, i went and worked out.