Seven.

I once met a kid names Cevan.  Pronounced as "seven."

But that's not the point.

Seven years ago today I was shopping at the mall on spring break.  I talked with a cute guy, who had some family from the same area I grew up.  He blinked a lot.  He mentioned he was going to seminary soon.

As I left the store my friend said I should give him my number.  At first I said no, but after a little coaxing I agreed.  But I was too shy to go back in there, so I convinced her to do it.  We also didn't have anything to write my number down on, so we settled for a food court napkin.

My friend gave my number to him and he asked if I was a Christian.  She answered, "Oh yes" and left.

He threw it away.

His co-worker dug it out of the trash.  "Call her, she's hot."

He held on to it and spent the next two days asking his friends whether or not he should call me.  He had great friends who had logical thinking patterns, so they told him to not call me.  I imagine it went something like, "No, don't call the crazy chick that gave you her phone number at the mall."


After I left the mall my friend and I went to eat at Chili's and got this volcano of chocolate cake and yumminess.  I must have been daydreaming because she looked at me and said, "Don't worry, Susan.  He'll call, and you guys will fall in love and get married and have lots of babies."  I had to ask her what his name was again, because I'd forgotten.  I wrote it down on another napkin to memorize, just in case he called (to this day I'm still bad with names).


Two days later I got a call from a strange number.  I was at my parents house, where my cell phone normally didn't get signal.  I picked it up and tried to act all calm.

Me: "Hello?"
Him: "Hey"
*awkward silence*
Him: "Do you know who this is?"
Me: [YESSSSSSS!!!!!!! OMG I can't believe you actually called me!!!!!]  "No, who is this?"
Him: "Well, if you don't remember then nevermind."
Me: "No, this is Josh, isn't it?"

And that, folks, was the start of a beautiful friendship between two people who really, really loved to talk.  Oh, and we did fall and love and get married... but no children yet.