I was sitting in the Kirkham and ward prayer was about to begin when out of nowhere a good looking guy behind me whispered, "Your name's Sarah right?" Now he already knew my name, and that I had worked at DI, that I went jogging often, and last week I came to church with another guy. But he asked me anyway. "I have a question for you after ward prayer." Throughout prayer I considered this wasn't a usual way to ask a girl out on a date and he seemed too serious as if this was strictly business. I couldn't imagine what he would say as I recalled the way we had been glancing at each other two Sundays ago. Perhaps he didn't even remember that, and he was going to ask me to give a talk. Maybe he was the ward executive secretary.

After prayer I made an effort to look occupied and not too eager to hear his question even though my interest was peaked. He asked me then, 'you look like the athletic type and we need more girls on our soccer team as the other girls got hurt during the game and they can't play anymore.' I hadn't expected this. And considering that I was only a 'jogging type' and not a 'sporty type' I declined the invitation, but I wanted him to keep talking to me so I mentioned that my roommate back at my apartment would probably love to play as she loves sports. As we walked side by sideI considered his height. I was use to dating 6 foot tall guys and thought this wouldn't work out as he was not 5'10 or taller.

We talked in my kitchen for hours! I understood now he was interested in me, but he was so ..serious! Never showing that he was interested, never coming on to me. My sporty roommate walked in and he started flirting with her. He was poking her and laughing -an entirely different person than I saw for the past hour or two as we sat talking about the 'serious things.'. He left and I said to my roommate, "you can have him" as I wasn't sure who he liked. I decided to let him make up his mind before I invested my heart.

He would come over and eat the tomatoes out of my garden, which was fine with me as I had a lot. I still wasn't sure of what he thought of me, as he didn't flirt with me, rather with my roommates! They would tell me he called or stopped by and that he was clearly interested in me. I would express I wasn't sure if he was. I was nervous and didn't know what to say around him. It was uncomfortable, but exciting at the same time. I never felt so emotionally vulnerable, as guys had always been forward with me. This Conrad, he was hard to sort out. After a while of his confident air and my loss of sleep I asked him bluntly one day, "What are you after?" He felt targeted and I told him my feelings forwardly. But he appreciated the broken ice. The funny thing was this: Conrad was used to feeling in control of his relationships. Well this was my history too! We both felt vulnerable.

Meanwhile Conrad was thinking, does she like me? She's late when she comes over to see me, which must mean her priorities are elsewhere. Little did he know I suffered from a 'lateness complex' which I inherited from my family, (to which Carrie lovingly referred to as 'Ulmer standard time’) and that all lateness shouldn't be taken too personally. But all joking aside, we sorted each other out little by little. In some cases picked each other apart; also not always a comfortable thing. We changed ourselves to fit one another, and I decided he was the perfect height after all.