THE DATING DANCE | THE "I LOVE YOU...NASHVILLE" INCIDENT | Strouse House Chronicles: PART
BRAD: Allie and I spent most of 2009 traveling between Richmond where Allie was living and Nashville where I was now living. She flew and I drove (guess who was broke….), seeing each other almost every month. We spent Valentine’s in Nashville wearing sweatpants/sweatshirts, bundled in a sleeping bag, and then under the covers of my bed because the radiator was out in my apartment. We also spent this Valentine’s Day (number 2) getting tattoos! Pretty sure that was a mark against me in HER DAD’S book.
One time particular trip after Valentine’s Day, Allie decided to fly into Atlanta because it would save her $50 on airfare and being the lovesick puppy I was, drove 4 hours there to pick her up, four hours home to Nashville, then two days later did the same 8 eight hour round trip. The things we do for love!
ALLIE: In hindsight, that was the stupidest way I’ve ever saved $50.
BRAD: Be as it may, that trip had a very special, memorable moment. Keep in mind, we hadn’t had the DTR talk yet. We were just dating, with no mention of the BF/GF titles. We were driving back from the aforementioned ATL trip and as we rounded the bend to Nashville the beautiful skyline came into view. I was exhausted from the long day of travel and the excitement of picking Allie up. Without thinking I blurted out “Ah! I love you!”. In my mind I was referencing the skyline, but seconds after Allie quickly turned to me with a deer-in-headlights look and said “Uh...What?!” We had just gotten past the awkwardness of the MIXTAPE INCIDENT. I realized what I said and quickly tried to cover by saying “I love the skyline. Don’t you?” and explain what I and why I just had said what I said. You literally could see a sense of relief fall over Allie as she wasn’t quite ready to repeat those words back to me. Chalk another one up to me sticking my foot in my mouth. I guess it could have been worse. Allie could have said “I love you, too” and then I would have had to make a quick decision - NOT tell her I was talking about the skyline or tell her and crush her heart. Luckily, it didn’t come to that. It did however start the idea of being BF/GF and eventually led to our DTR talk.
To be continued…
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