Bonus points to anyone who had any idea that Bryce had a secret thing for me.
I had somewhat of an idea that Bryce may have liked me more than I initially liked him — as more than a friend. I kind of had a feeling based on his body language whenever he was around, but again, I was very insecure — so I didn’t read too much into it.
One day, he was over at my house and my parents let us have the living room to watch a movie, we sat on a reclining sofa with a fold-out table separating us from one another. After we finished the movie “40-Year-Old Virgin” with the iconic Steve Carell, I walked him to his car so he could head back home. I don’t know what came over me, I really don’t. I don’t know if he made me feel a certain way that no other man had, I don’t know. But, all I did know was, if he liked me — I was starting to like him back at this point. He picked up on it, and straight up asked me if I wanted him to kiss me. I nodded my head, and quietly said yes under my breath. Without hesitation, he walked up to me, grabbed the back of my neck, pulled me in, and planted one on me.
I… had butterflies.
Bryce and I continued to date on the down low, we didn’t want anyone from work finding out since he was technically my supervisor. My bosses honestly couldn’t have cared less, but we didn’t want to risk it.
I asked him how long he had liked me for, when he said ever since he laid eyes on me. Yes, I know how cheesy this sounds, I thought the same. But, he came with verbal receipts. He remembered not only the exact outfit I was wearing the day of my interview, as he was the one running the desk that day. He recalled that I was wearing some kind of rainbow tie-dyed t-shirt, and blue jeans that quote, “made my butt look really good,” unquote. He had even noticed that I had my hair scrunched with all my natural curls just flowing like beachy waves.
We tried to hide it from our colleagues, but I guess we didn’t do a very good job at it. Eric ended up figuring it out when we went to a friend of ours’s wedding together. We were trying to discreetly hold hands under the table where no one could see them, and someone even asked how long we had been dating when we both abruptly said, “We’re not.” We ended up slow-dancing a few times together that night at the reception, so I’m not so sure how smooth we were or if we were even believed.
It didn’t take long for me to begin looking for work outside of the hospital since he was technically my manager, but we weren’t the first couples to come from that kind of relationship in that department. That department, specifically, had its fair share of romances, long-term and short-term. But, I ultimately confided in Sarahbeth about the relationship between Bryce and myself, and a pregnant her crawling on all fours into our bosses office to tell him, “I know something you don’t know,” was quite the sight.
*She had our permission to tell, by the way. No, that’s a lie. I actually told her and may have forgotten to imply it was a secret… my bad. But when I told Bryce that I told Sarahbeth, he laughed and said, “She can’t keep a secret! Well, cat’s outta the bag now!” I cracked up, and said, “No, it’ll be fine!” Next thing you see is her almost pregnant army-crawling into the office to spread the news. We kept quiet for a short time, but since we weren’t the first to have this happen to, we decided to let her do us a favor and out us. Our boss was actually happy for us, but I did still end up finding other work. I didn’t want him feeling like he had to compromise his job for me, ya know?
Things were going well with me and Bryce — at least I thought so.
Not long after we officially began dating, he came to pick me up to go hang out. We went to a local park that had this beautiful white terrace-style wooden bridge over this like, babbling brook-type creek that ran through the park. The sun was glistening off the slippery rocks in the creek bed and it was just a beautiful day out. As we approached the bridge, I noticed Bryce began getting antsy and started shifting around a bit.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He responded subtly, seemingly unsure if he believed himself or not.
“Mmkay,” I replied — albeit skeptically — unsure if I believed him or not.
I probably shouldn’t have.
As we were about halfway across the bridge, Bryce abruptly stopped. I turn to find him down on one knee, a gorgeous white gold band formed to meet a stunning round fan-cut solitaire diamond, just shimmering away in the sunlight.
“Will you marry me?” He asked, a smile emblazoned on his visage, his smile radiating from one ear plastered across to the other.
“Yes! Oh, my gosh — get up!” After I saw people watching, I got embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to even admit that — but yeah… I was… shocked. They say you’re supposed to spend a certain amount of time to save up for a ring — but he didn’t want to wait that long. So, he was not only saving but also selling all his valued possessions for extra cash to pay the ring off more quickly.
He had already asked my parents for their permission, so I guess when I thought things were going well, I didn’t realize just how much he agreed.
I ended up finding work at a few places here and there, but the most notable ones that stand out are a boutique inside one of our local malls while also working for a local call center assisting customers refill their mail-service-pharmacy prescriptions. I worked at both around the same time as I was now not only trying to move out on my own but also planning a wedding. I didn’t stay at the mall job long because I began having some health issues and could only focus on one job, so I picked the one that I liked the most, and it also paid the most, which was the call center. We thought we had figured out the root of the health concerns and had them addressed. Little did I know at that time, that would just be the start of my health issues.
That damn hindsight will getcha every time, I tell ya.
The boutique in the mall stood out because on my way to work one morning, a truck full of four guys rolled their window down at a stop light trying to get me to give them my number… I flashed my ring at them.
Happily off the market, boys!
