May 24th-

Okay. I totally forgot to write in my journal today. I got talked into helping put together banners for the local junior high school dance and had to bake like a million cookies for the women’s league bake sale. Anyway. The date. (Dun. Dun. DUN!!!)

Sam showed up at my door with a bouquet of red roses. He wore a nice, button-down shirt and slacks. His dark curls were slicked back in a way that looked effortless and still cool.

“You look beautiful, Katie,” he said, handing me the flowers. I smiled like an idiot, while I smoothed my knee-length floral skirt. My heart pounded madly in my chest.

“You look beautiful too,” I blurt out. “I mean, really handsome.” Sam smiled, revealing the dimple in his cheek.

“Thanks.”

We drove back to the nature park. It was getting dark. The faint rays of sunset were beginning to be erased in the darkness.

“W-what… What are we doing here?”

He gave me a reassuring smile. “Dinner.”

“You’re not secretly a murderer, taking me here to kill me, are you? I’ve watched enough crime shows to know that” I scrunched my face up for a second, “I could probably do nothing to stop you,” I say as he opens the passenger side door of me. Sam laughed, showing off his dimple.

“I promise you, Katie,” he said. “You are absolutely safe with me. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

If my marriage-minded mother was there, she would have gotten ordained online to marry us, right then and there. All joking aside. I felt safe with Sam. I’ve dated a ton of people over the years and no one ever made me feel like that. It was weirdly wonderful. Oh my gosh. Do I have a crush on him?

June 7th –

Today marks my fifth date with Sam. He’s been a perfect gentleman and treats me like I am a queen. I am a little baffled though. I’ve never actually made it this far in the relationship game before. Most guys I dated or tried to date rather, either ghosted me after I showed them my Star Wars Lego sets or started dating one of my roommates. In my defense, I never understood why they thought my old college roommates were more normal than me. I mean, we all worked on the same miniature dollhouse together.

The other thing that baffles me is that I like being with Sam. He’s sweet and understanding and gives the darn best hugs. I guess I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Stuff like this doesn’t happen to me. I’m… I’m the back-up plan. I’m not the ingenuine, leading lady type. I’m kind of scared that Sam’s going to tell me that he doesn’t want to be with me anymore.

If he does, I wouldn’t blame him. I am a former grad student turned cashier with a mountain of student loans and he’s… He’s perfect.