Green Shorts Boy

I am new. It’s my first week at SLU. I’m walking down the main strip of campus and I see him. The image of what I have imagined the future “Mr. Kaylin Ielase” to look like. Of course he wouldn’t be taking my name because I think that’s just weird but you get the idea. My future husband…or he could be. I hear angels singing in my head. It’s love at first sight. Ha, alright probably not love at first sight but right after those angels end their operatic “Hallelujah” my own voice chimes in with a resounding, “How YOOOOU doin big boy?” 

Oh yeah!

I thought, “I’ll probably never see him again” all the while ardently hoping, wishing, and praying he saw me too and we’d bump into each other….only this time he’d sweep me off my beautiful feet and we’d be well on our way to falling helplessly in love. 

Weeeellllll, it was somewhere in between the two. Since I spent 9/10 of my first semester here in my dorm due to delusions we don’t need to discuss here, I missed out on the sweeping action he was prone to do at some point in our limited acquaintance. 

However, upon my emergence from my humble abode in Marguerite one of the first places I made my acquaintance with was….the gym. As you can see from the post before this, I’m a fan. This is partially, but not solely because of the men who dwell there. It is here that I ventured everyday around 11 a.m. or after 3 p.m. - religiously due to the fact that I was determined not to go away to school and gain a bunch of weight but to come home looking fabulous. This is beside the point. It was at the Simon Rec Center that it happened.

I saw him. He saw me too. I know he did. We saw each other every day for two semesters. I told my friends about him. I told my family about him….And nothing happened. I think the extent of our contact was passing each other to get a drink from the water fountain. 

You’re probably wondering how he got to be Green Shorts Boy by now so I’ll tell you. I was working out with my friend one day and he was there so I could finally show her what he looked like (and she could, consequently, approve – which she did). He was in green shorts, hence Green Shorts Boy.

That is, until this year. Ah this year! I move into my new apartment with my new roommates. I wander on my way through the Village on my home from class or the gym and there he is walking out of it!!! YESSSS!!!

A few days later…I’m out on the balcony reading my homework (the weather was beautiful – a perfect 75 – 80 degrees and sunny *sigh* I miss that weather). Anyway, I catch a movement in my peripheral vision. I look up. Green Shorts Boy. Standing on the balcony of the building right next to mine, one floor up. We see each other – I think he may have already been looking at me because I looked up and – our eyes meet for one hot sizzling moment before he turns and walks back inside. WHOOP WHOOP! Fate has intervened once again. I was in such a good mood when my roommates got home they asked how my day was and I spilled that I had seen my crush of over a year in the apartment just across the way and we made eye contact.

Give me a break it was progress.

Long story short, it turns out they know him! I now know his name. Naturally, I start playing the name game where I put our names togther to see how good they sound…and, of course, seeing how his last name fit with my first name. We are getting married one day. It’s gonna happen. 

My roommates have birthdays the first couple weeks in August so we all go out for a big birthday dinner/party at Triumph Bar and Grill. I walk in with them and there are already a bunch of people there. The first person I see… yup you guessed it! GREEN SHORTS BOY, now GSB for short. Our eyes meet once again, hold. This is the first time he’s seen me in normal clothes – not sweaty shorts and a T-shirt. Thank the dear Lord Jesus for making me feel like dressing up and looking good that night!! This is when I discover he’s one half of a couple. That’s right, my future husband has a girlfriend. My heart broke just a little.

Halloween comes. The stakes rise again. We have a party. He shows up. Uninvited (not that I mind). With his girlfriend; in coordinating costumes (this I mind). At first, I didn’t know he was there. I was a little preoccupied spitting game at another guy that I had already had an actual conversation and obvious flirtation previous to this night. The next thing I know one of my roommates is running up to me to excitedly “whisper” in my ear, “GSB IS HERE!!!”

“WHAT?!?!” I ask. I look over and sure enough he’s right there! In my apartment. Looooking goooood!!!!

Months go by, I see him every once in a while. I go to a local bar, Humphrey’s, on my birthday. Again, GSB is spotted. He spots me too. I catch him looking at me all night and I’m not the only one to notice. All my friends kept coming up to me, unprompted; to tell me they have caught him too. 

“You two have some weird chemistry going on,” they told me. Duh, I already know but I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees it.

The next spotting was a men’s basketball game at the arena where I work. I’m working the Will Call table. We have a pass list for the band and cheerleaders. I see him walk in. There’s only hope that he needs to come to my table and that the other person’s line that I’m working with will be slower than mine. It happens. He’s right there in front of me. We’re talking. 

I don’t know what I’m saying. Yes, I do. He has my friend’s ID and he doesn’t know I know person whose ID it is. He thought wrong. Jackpot! 

Me: “I know ****.”

Him: “Nuh uh.”

Me: “Yes, I do.” I have the pass list. I can just let him in…but what if **** comes?

Him: “Oh, well. He gave me his ID because he couldn’t make it,” he says with a sheepish grin on his face.

Me: He has the ID. I’m just going to have to take his word for it and let him in. “Alright, I’m going to let you in because I know **** and if you have his ID he probably gave it to you.” I hope. I have to text him right after this.

Him: “Thanks,” he says with a wink and he walks away.

I get done at work and go into the game because two of my best friends are here visiting. I get to show them who he is. They approve. We leave to go get some food and he’s walking back into the arena from getting a drink.

Him: “Hey, thanks again for letting me in. I really didn’t know you knew ****. See ya.” WINK!! Two winks and two conversations in one night ahhh we’re moving up in the world!!

Me:  I smile and laugh. “No problem. See ya.” Inward sigh.

Things have been cold since then….until tonight. I learned of a website where one can anonymously flirt and say when they’ve spotted someone they like and hope that the other person knows you’re talking about them. He did. 

Now, now we wait and see… ;-)