My Best Friend - Then and Now... Part 7

That delicious voice was the first thing I heard every morning and the last thing I heard every night from April 12 to June 5th. By this time I was home for the summer and working at the local public library. Alan and I had been planning to meet in person back in May, but unforseeable obstacles kept popping up, blocking our path to each other. I wrecked my mom's new car and totalled it out (not my fault..thank God!). Alan's truck broke down and he injured his neck while working on it, and that ultimatly is what delayed our union. I can imagine it would not be easy to drive 800 miles with a stiff, sore, aching neck...so our meeting had to be delayed two weeks. On June 5th, he told his family that he was coming here to help his older brother (the one married w/ kids) who was getting ready to move the coming weekend. (But we know why he was REALLY coming.... ME! haha) It's about a 14 hour drive from Houston to my hometown, and Alan got to his grandmother's home (where he was planning to stay) very late the night of the 6th. He called me to let me know that he had arrived in one piece, and made arrangements to pick me up from work the next afternoon. Despite the state of contentment and bliss his phone calls always left me with, I was unable to sleep. I had that anxious nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach like a little kid waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Only this was so much bigger...I was going to meet the man I knew I was destined to be with...my soulmate...in about 16 hours. I made it through the next day only with maximum effort and concentration. The "old ladies" I worked with, who had finally coerced the story out of me, had been teasing and taunting me all day. Finally the end of my workday was drawing to a close, not unlike the invisible vice that was slowly tightening around my chest, making it difficult to breathe. I was a wreck. I didn't know whether to run for the door or the bathroom to be sick. I was replacing the last cart of books in the stacks at ten 'till five when Alan arrived at the already locked front doors of the library. Guessing that he was my mystery date, the ladies let him in. When I returned to the front desk to gather my belongings...there he stood, smiling at me. My mind exploded into a thousand random thoughts...my heart stopped beating...I forgot to breathe...but thank God I did NOT forget to smile back, though I'm sure my blush could have lit the deepest, darkest cavern. (To be continued...)