Falling in Love With My Husband

Like all great love stories, ours began with a terrible cliche: you really do find love when you’re least expecting it. It was a late December day in Los Angeles (which meant I was forced to wear tights with my dress) and I was helping a friend get ready for her holiday party. I already had the thought that if I helped her get ready for the party, I wouldn’t have to go to said party. And that was the plan until another friend asked if I could play wing-woman for her that night. With nothing better to do, I trudged over to my friend’s house, haphazardly put on makeup (who did I have to impress) and planned to go to the party for a one-drink maximum. I can also assure you that this was the one time in my life I didn’t have boys on the brain.

And then, after about an hour of small talk and awkwardness, I was getting ready to tell my friends that I was going to take off when I spotted my now-husband from across the room. He was wearing a cardigan sweater with a tie and looked so handsome. He was also talking to my best friend, so I had a perfect opportunity to chat him up. And chat him up, I did. Almost the entire night until my friend told me it was time to go. Nate and I exchanged hugs and a lukewarm promise to see each other on New Year’s Eve after we discovered we were invited to the same parties. I already started planning my outfit and midnight kiss with him.

That night, I stayed at my best friend’s house, but I couldn’t sleep. I did the appropriate amount of internet stalking to discover we had similar interests in music and movies (important) and he was a capricorn (very important) and I scrolled through all the public photos I could find of him, replaying our conversation in my head. I wasn’t in love yet, but I was certainly smitten.

New Year’s Eve finally came around (after adding each other on Facebook and getting photographic evidence of how cute we were together), and as promised, I took a little extra time getting ready that night in the hopes that I’d be seeing him later. Midnight came and went and I realized we must’ve missed each other. I also cursed myself for not giving him my number. What I was I thinking? When all hope seemed lost, I turned around to see him walk through the door at half past midnight. He explained that since I wasn’t at the other party, he thought he’d find me here. I told him I was so glad he did. We made some small talk, and truth be told, I don’t remember what we said. Blame it on the alcohol. At some point, that alcohol made me brave enough to say:

“I wish you were here at midnight.” He asked what would’ve happened at midnight. I coyly replied that I didn’t know. Then he suggested we could recreate it. We counted down from 10.

10.

I couldn’t believe this was happening it was by far the cutest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Like, this is a movie moment, right?

He came all this way for me. That makes a girl feel special.

OMG, what is going on with my breath? I silently prayed it was okay.

His eyes are so pretty. They’re gray or blue or even a little green depending on what he’s wearing. I could get lost in them.

Why the hell did we decide to countdown from 10? We could’ve started with 5.

I think this kiss is going to be amazing.

The suspense. Holy shit. Why didn’t we count down from 3?

Am I going to be sick? Or are those butterflies? When was the last time I had butterflies? These are definitely butterflies.

It’s really happening.

I think this is going to be my last first kiss.

And it was. It was also the best kiss I’ve ever had.

I’m not going to say I fell in love that night — that came later with spending time together, him getting along so well with my dog, and what really sealed the deal: when he brought over a costco-sized box of K-cups because he noticed I was running low (I’m now in charge of keeping the k-cups restocked #marriedlife). But, something within me definitely shifted that night. For the girl who was always looking for her rom-com romance, the beginning of our relationship felt like exactly that. It was easy and fun and wonderful and sweet and a bunch of other adjectives that could get into mushy territory very soon. But, that was what it was like to fall in love with the man who is now my husband. Four years later, I love him even more than I could possibly imagine that night. And he still gives me butterflies.