19 Days

He said it. Finally.

My heart was racing and the only thing I could do was jump out of bed and do a 3AM happy dance. I remembered a few minutes later that I should probably say it back. (When we talked about this moment later, he told me waiting for my response was completely agonizing!).

As quickly as my heart sped up, it stopped. Sam was leaving for Italy in two days. The past few months we had been in constant communication, and now he was going out of the country. For nineteen days. He would have no cell service, and probably no internet. So for the time being we decided to ignore what was coming and simply “hang out” the next day… at Best Buy… because I couldn’t tell my parents and eating a meal together would be too suspicious.

I didn’t wear makeup or put much thought into what I would wear, yet the first thing is said to me was that I looked beautiful. And I let myself believe him. He reached for my hand with confidence and even though I had never held a boys hand before it felt so natural. We spent the afternoon with wide smiles and a never-ending conversation, strolling through Best Buy in a Joseph-Gordon-Levitt-and-Zooey Deschanel-in-Ikea manner. I had never been so nervous and calm, so excited and scared, at the same time.

Time went by too quickly and before I knew it we were standing in the parking lot between our cars hugging goodbye. It was the kind of hug you never wanted to leave. We stood there with our arms wrapped around each other as long as we could, so that maybe it would be enough to make it through those next two and a half weeks apart. I kissed him on the cheek and we said a sad, final goodbye.

Now, one of the reasons I love Sam is that he can make me laugh at the drop of a hat. And in a moment like this where the very last thing I could imagine doing was smiling, he had me gasping for air. As he turned around to get in his car, he noticed his door was locked. With the keys inside. IN THE IGNITION. We looked all over for a coat hanger, a mechanic, a magician- anything! I’ll spare you the details of a quick drive to his house, my crashing into the curb and many more embarrassing moments that I am so thankful for because they gave me another hour with him.

I knew the next few weeks would be hard, but this little memory kept me smiling through it. However, what I didn’t know was how close we would become starting a relationship from half-way around the world.