This is the story of how I met Chris .. It was July 9th 2007, I was working an extra 7p-7a shift in the Emergency Room at Houston Medical Center. I was working Triage , when Shannon and I , finally started making our way through our full rack of charts, I look onto our Ibex EMR to see who the next pt is to be triaged....I walked out to the waiting area to call the pt back, so I call his name, He has an obvious laceration to his hand but he's not in distress, following in behind him came another guy, I thought "okay, guess he's going to come into the triage room with him" The friend was playing with the pt's phone , so I made a few jokes in reference to him going through his buddy's phone. I didn't give it a second thought. I triaged him and took him to a room on fast track (ortho and non acute area), I showed the pt and his friend into B6, set up the laceration tray, stopped by the nurses station and handed his chart off to the doc. I made my way back to triage and continued on with my shift.
Later on as the night slowed down, I made my way back to fast track to chat with a few co-workers, When Brian, the PA asked me if I could assist him with suturing the pt in B-6, I was like "sure, triage isn't busy right now". So into the pt's room we went. The pt was on the stretcher ,all laid back holding his lacerated hand upright while his friend was sitting in the chair beside him. As I was preparing the laceration tray, pouring in the surcleanse and laying out the sutures, Brian was making jokes with the pt and his friend. I overheard one of the conversation's about drag cars and such, and I for one, paid them no attention. So we draped the pt's hand and arm to get ready for the procedure and the friend remained quiet while trying not to watch the sutures being placed and his friend's hand sewn back together. Brian finished up the procedure and asked me to get the pt a Tetanus shot, as Brian left the room, the patient's friend started to ask me questions, "What does your husband do?" and I said "I don't have a husband". then he proceeded to ask me if I have a boyfriend, then on to " What are you doing this weekend" and of course I said , "I'm busy" then he kept on asking more and more, "what about during the week, what about next weekend?" I kept saying , "Busy", Finally he gave it one final try, "Can I take you to a movie and dinner?" So I gave in, To my self I thought , what could it hurt. This guy was so not my type. I was into taller guys, and not Asians. We exchanged names, but I did not give him my number. He wrote his number on a paper towel and handed it to me, and he kept saying to me " haha, your not going to call me, I know that" and I said to him " We will see", as I left the room to get back to triage.
I didn't think any more about him. Triage had still not gotten busy. My good friend Shannon and I were just talking and laughing like we normally did when we worked together on our triage team. As we were standing there, the patient and his friend that we had triaged hours earlier, stepped back into the triage room, to tell us by. The pt's friend . gave me a look and said to me "don't forget" and I said "umm okay" My friend Shannon gave me a weird look and said " what was that about?" I laughed and said "Nothing at all" and we went about our shift.
After that night, I didn't give the whole thing another thought. I was dating a guy already, Joey, we were not serious and had been on many dates, I had been to his house in Ruzic's Rye a few times and he had been to my apartment at Amber Place quite a few times. He was a great guy and I knew this, he was a pilot in the 116th ACW @ RAFB. He was tall, Blond hair with Blue eyes and a fun personality. We did not see each other every day , nor did we talk every day. He was a great guy, but I knew that there was nothing long term with him.
So the weekend came and I Was home alone, and I started to think back about that night in the ER and that guy. I found the napkin with his number written on it, and gave him a call. He arranged a date and time to come to my apartment, we were to meet that evening at 7pm. As the evening got closer, he gave me a call so that I could let him in the gate. Moments later, there was a knock at my door. I made my way to the door and let him him. He was wearing khaki pants, an orange and white long sleeved button down shirt and brown shoes. He looked nice, better than that night that I met him in the ER. I let him in for a few minutes, we talked , I grabbed my purse and we headed out the door. We got in his car , our date had begun. We drove to Margarita's Mexican Restaurant in Macon, ate a nice dinner then watched a great movie, the movie was 1408. We held hands and kissed through the movie, he kept his rt hand on my leg throughout the entire movie. After the movie was over we headed back to my apartment, we sat on my leather sectional sofa and chatted for a while. As the night came to an end, he asked me if he could see me again.
Joey stopped in and we went out Johnny Carino's for lunch then on to see the Macon Braves play. After, we went back to his house to watch a movie, The name of the movie was "300", it was a great movie, I ended up staying the night. Most of the night, my phone rang off the hook, so I turned it off. The next morning as I was leaving , I turned on my phone and there was a voice mail message...it was Chris and the only thing that he said was.. " I guess I got played, I should have known that you were not interested in me".
At this moment , I can't even begin to tell you how I felt at that very moment. I felt bad but It felt humorous too. So I returned his call, we chatted for a bit and arranged to see each other again. I explained to him that I was at Joey's and that he wanted me to ride with him to Garden Ridge in Atlanta. (Joey was really into his home and lawn), well Chris didn't really like that idea, even though he knew about Joey, he wanted to meet me at my apartment right away.
In my heart I knew that I was not going to stay with Joey, so I ended things with him that day, drove back home and Chris was waiting on me at my apartment, he had followed someone in the gate. We had a long talk, and our relationship started to grow from there. Two weeks into dating, one night he came over to my apartment, I had friends over, Justin and Amy, so were all hanging out watching movies and getting ready to go to the pool, when he grabbed my hand and said to me "so, am I your boyfriend?" I said "no, I don't want a boyfriend", I am not sure what god said to me that day, but a few hours later we were in a relationship and we have been ever since that day. In September of 2008, He took me on a trip to Savannah where he got down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage, I said yes, and he placed the most beautiful Platinum Diamond ring on my finger that had ever seen. I was engaged, and going to be married again. No way, I thought to myself. I will just stay engaged , I don't want to be married.
Life moved so fast for me after that, we found out that we were pregnant, he set a wedding date and every time; I would move it further and further away. Finally on Jan 21, 2009 at a church here in Warner Robins, we were married.
I still talk to Joey every now and then , he has since relocated bases to Eglin, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and has a beach home in Pensacola. I am very happy for Joey and all that he has accomplished, and only God knows where we would be now, but God has showed me what Love and dedication is, and has given me the greatest man that I could have ever dreamed of.
I feel compelled to say, Chris has grown up so much since we met, I am very proud of the man that he has become and I love him more and more every day.
