Excuse me...

I-pods are great for car trips; I learned this on my trip to Raleigh.  You don’t realize how hard it is to find a good radio station, until you are driving through three states. As soon as you find a station you like it either goes to commercial, or you drive out of their coverage area.

So driving up I-85, I was rocking out and singing out loud with the songs on my I-pod.  I was so excited and carefree... time for my girls’ weekend.  Then, my phone started ringing… it was a number I did not recognize.  Normally, I would send this kind of call straight to voicemail, but, I had just started working in the visitor class at church and I was afraid it was one of our visitors calling with a question.  So, I answered…

“Hello.”

“Hi, this is … Patrick… friend.” 

The connection was terrible!  I couldn’t understand what he was saying… is this my brother Patrick’s friend?  Has something happened to my brother?  Isn’t 256 and Alabama area code?  In all my confusion, the best I could say was, “Excuse me?”

“This is Patrick, Dana’s friend from Southeastern, she gave me your number.”

No way, could it be??  I felt my face growing warmer, and I’m pretty sure if you had seen me in that moment my face was a lovely shade of Georgia red.  I was in shock!  I just kept thinking don’t say anything stupid.

We talked for a few minutes.  Patrick asked if he could take me to dinner Saturday night.  I told him I would have to check with Dana to make sure she didn’t have plans, because I thought we were supposed to go to a dance show.  He asked if I knew any movies playing in the theatre… get ready for a foot in mouth moment… I said, “I don’t really go to movies too often, I have a pretty short attention span.”

Then came the long pause, followed by, “Oh… I can find something else for us to do.”

Wow, way to go Elizabeth… way to ruin his plans.  The poor guy had to call this random girl and ask her out, and then she ruins his plans without the blink of an eye.  This is not a good way to get started.

The call was pretty quick… we made plans for the next night, he would pick me up at Dana’s and we would head out.

When we hung up thoughts came rushing through my head!  Did I say the right thing?  Did I say too much?  Did I pack anything to wear on a date?  But most importantly, Dana didn’t tell me she gave him my number…

*This is the second of a 3 part series... to start from the begining read "The Story Behind the Story"... to read part three go to "Ice Cream in December"