I left you hanging a little bit last week (read the post here), but to recap, I spent the summer in South Africa as our friendship grew through emails and phone calls. At the end of my time there, Nathan called me one day and told me that he was interested in being more than friends when I came back home. I wasn't surprised (he'd spent a lot of time and money calling me over the summer!), but I was extremely excited.

When school was starting again, Nathan left for Blacksburg a few days early and stopped in Roanoke, where I lived at the time. That was our first official date! He took me to Olive Garden (and totally embarrassed me by asking in front of the waitress if I wanted to sit in the smoking section of if I'd 'kicked the habit!') and we ate breadsticks and talked. After that, we hung out at the mall and walked around for a little while. To be honest, it was a little awkward going from typing and halted phone calls to being with each other, but somehow it just worked. We left as friends, but I was hoping it wouldn't be that way for long :)