He was such a gentleman. A guy any girl would dream of having. Such a romantic, he would ask me to go out with him at a certain time and certain place. So organized, I loved it. We met at the mall, I was looking for a nice dress for a party I was going to later that day. As I was about to walk into one of my favorite stores, there was a guy waiting right outside the door. He had light brown skin, he was tall and wore a tight black dress shirt that accented his muscles very well. We made eye contact and he smiled, at that point I realized he had bright white teeth, and dimples just like I do, it looks very good on him, and made me want to see that smile again. I assumed he was waiting for his girlfriend to come out of the store like most men do, so I continued to head inside. I’m not a fan of shopping, and I was struggling to find something to wear, but then I found the perfect dress. It was sleeveless and a magenta color, it was long and went a little past my feet, but I felt the shiny black heels I was planning to wear would even it out. I went to pay for it, but realized I had left my card at home. “It’s okay, I’ll just have them put it on hold for me,” I said to myself.
“Excuse me, I just realized I had left my card at home, so would I be able to put the dress on hold?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“No, you can’t put this dress on hold, this is our most popular dress and that’s the last one, so I will not let you waste my time by putting it on hold when you probably won’t be back for the next week anyway.” I was shocked. She doesn’t believe I will come back to get it, so she’s not putting it on hold? Is this even allowed?
“Can I speak to a manager? This is ridiculous.”
“I am the manager sweetie.” The lady says with a smirk.
I am filled with so much anger right now. The place was crowded there’s no way this dress will last until tomorrow.
“Honey, why didn’t you tell me you needed money?” It’s the guy from outside of the store. “Uhm what?” I say surprised that he’s even talking to me. He walks up to the cashier lady, and says, “it’s okay, I got this,” and then he hands the lady a card to pay for my dress. He continues to walk up to me and says, “I’m Dylan by the way, what’s your name?” I don’t know what to do. This feels like a dream. Words finally begin to escape my mouth, “I’m Raquel.”
“Nice to meet you Raquel, you want to get coffee sometime?”
That’s how it all started. Of course I said yes to coffee, a guy like that, asking me to coffee? Not even a question. I thought by coffee he just meant a quick trip to Starbucks. I was wrong. We ended up going to some fancy bakery downtown. On the drive there I thought it would be weird, we barely knew each other. It was actually not a bad experience, driving with him is really fun. There’s no awkward silences. He would ask me questions about myself and I would ask him questions about himself. Once in a while his answers would be a little strange, but I just laughed and went on to the next question. When we finally made it there, he got out of the car quickly, before I could even take my seatbelt off, and then he opened the door for me. “You know, you didn’t have to do that,” I’d say to him. “But I wanted to,” he’d reply. Right when we walked inside the bakery I felt my stomach growl. They had some gigantic m&m and chocolate chip cookies, strawberry cupcakes with vanilla icing and sprinkles, some blueberry muffins, and so much more it looked amazing.
“I thought we were just here for coffee,” I mentioned to him. “Oh really? I thought we could get a little more,” he says with a smirk. I blush, and at that moment I knew this was going to be the best day ever. After the bakery, we end up going to an art museum because I mention the fact that I am interested in art and go to many art events. So this is what he suggested. After that I also mention my love for cookies and cream ice cream. He then suggested that we go get some ice cream down by the beach. We set up blankets and everything on the beach and look out at the sunset while eating our ice cream. “This was honestly the best day I’ve ever had, where did you come from?” He just continued looking out at the sunset and smiled.
I know it was really random and fast how we all started, but I don’t find it too bad. It was almost like love at first sight. I used to never believe in it. My mama would tell me not to believe in anything that came out of a person’s mouth or on the internet. So I never did, unless I knew the source was reliable. I knew that as I grew up, I may or may not fall in love. I was perfectly fine with the “may not.” I was doing fine in life. I just finished high school, and got accepted to NIU, the college of my dreams. I was going to major in biochemistry and already had all of my classes picked out. However, after I met Dylan, a lot changed. He graduated around a year before me and had a job as a construction worker with his dad. He ended up convincing me to come live with him and not go to the college that I was planning on going to my whole life. I was pretty disappointed for a while, but he assured me that it would all be great in the end because we were together and that’s all that mattered. Not only this, but he also felt that I didn’t need a job because I’m the girl and he should be the one taking care of me and the house. Not vise versa. I took this a little hard because I had a passion for biochemistry and planned on becoming a teacher. I tried to have a talk with him about this. “Dylan.” I said with a serious tone in my voice. “I will be getting a job.” At this point I didn’t care what he said about it, my minds already been made up.
We were in the kitchen and I can tell he took my tone of voice to a surprise. “Did you not hear me?” I say. “Oh I heard you,” he replied. “Do you even love me? You never listen to me anymore and when I tell you I don’t want you to have a job, I mean it.”
“I do love you Dylan. I believe that it’s my choice whether I want to get a job or not.” He began to walk closer to me and said “No, and that’s my final answer.”
“Okay, well I’m getting one whether you like it or not.” At this moment, I saw his arm raise and his hand headed towards my face, and I knew that Dylan had changed a lot more than I thought he had.