Darin's Words: Meeting in Panama City Beach
I first found interest in Lara over a can of Dr. Pepper someone gave me while hanging out with some people from USF, including her.
As soon as I asked her if she wanted a sip of my Dr. Pepper and she said “Yes,” not afraid of the germs, I knew I was in love. When I then asked her again she said “No thanks, I'm good,” I followed suit and said me neither. We continued the night with her friends and words of wisdom, a.k.a. Mad Libs. During the entire game I remember distinctly, her large, beautiful blue eyes flirting with my small, hazel, Cyclops-looking “Sautter family" eyes. Once this happened, again, I knew I was in love.
The next day I realized, after confessing my love for Lara to my roommate at Big Break, that she was the girl I was going to marry. I even sacrificed waking up early and going to these morning apologetics meetings just because I knew she would be there. After spending much time with her and her friends, I made it clear to my roommate Andy that I was going to tell this girl that I loved her….sigh…well not exactly, but more so that I liked her!
The final day came, the Friday of my dreams!!! There I was waiting with my friends on the beach for the love of my life to meet me and then I would share with her all that I had built up to share. When she finally arrived with her friend Katie, I knew I had to somehow get her alone. I did not want to leave Katie alone so I told both of them that we could walk to find their friend Ashley, and once that happened I could make a quick getaway with my dream girl. The words didn’t even get half way out of my mouth, when Katie quickly said I am going to stay here, you two go ahead. (This could not have worked out any more perfect. She knew.) At this point Lara and I did not go to find her friend, we just darted to the shore line and went on walked for miles discussing how incredible the week was. At this point I stopped us both and turned to her and said “I like you,” and she said "Awww, I like you too!” Then we did what most Christians do: we stared at each other. As time passed, I said “HUG ME!” and we hugged it out the awkwardness.
Lara's Words: Meeting in Panama City Beach
I was standing around with some of my friends from USF at Big Break after the evening meeting, and my friend Ashley said, "Hey! Darin! Come here!" Some tall guy (who I thought was cute) came over to our group, and Ashley introduced him as someone she played volleyball with earlier on the beach. My other friend Katie remembered meeting him before, as he roomed with guys from our school at the same conference a year ago. All this randomness led to us inviting him to play some Mad Libs with us, and he said he'd come. I was thinking, "Man, he must have boring friends if he's willing to come hang with us." I was probably not seeing the real reason! Haha.
(Refer to Darin's Dr. Pepper story to fill in.)
We played Mad Libs and joked around for a long time. This guy Darin kept looking at me the whole time! I tried not to let myself think that anything special was going on; I did not want to be disappointed. But we kept running into each other everywhere. We both kept going to these meetings in the morning that were so early, even though we were tired and didn't really go for the content, I guess. ;) He kept hanging out with us all the time, and I just didn't get it! We were really not that much fun, in my opinion. Why is he still around so much!?
My roomie Katie kept winking at me and teasing me all week about him, but I was just so sure that I was making up anything I thought I saw happen, and that Darin didn't really like me, even though I was really starting to like him. I was a little more sure after he hung out at our place till 4 a.m. just talking, but I didn't know if he had any plans in mind. Little did I know what would be happening on Friday on the beach.
We said we'd meet up with him and hang out on our free afternoon, and once we got there, we all hung out for a bit until Darin asked, "Hey, do you wanna go on a walk?" I thought it was an open invitation and said "Yeah!" and jumped up to go, only to see no one else follow. Crap! He probably didn't mean for it to be just me! This is going to be so awkward! is what I was thinking. At least, until we were discussing our favorite parts of the week, and he looked down at the ground and said "...meeting you." No one had ever told me anything like this before! Or continued on a long list of reasons why. Needless to say, I somehow got out the phrase that I liked him, too. Of course, I made this weird "Oh" noise first, but that's just what happens when you surprise a Lara like that. :)
That's how we met, folks! Keep checking for additional installments in the saga!
