Beth came upstairs on Dec 29th and said her and Nick were hanging out on New Years Eve.
I thought, 'What? How?' I looked at her phone and saw that she had sent Nick a text. "We be together on New Years." He responded with "Okay" and promptly sent his address. In her mind, that was that. It was all settled that they would spend New Years together.
I figured they wanted to be together on New Years Eve to ring in the new year. He lives almost an hour away from us and I couldn't drive him home at 1:00 in the morning. I hated to disappoint her but I knew I wasn't gonna be able to make it happen and I had no idea what his mom was doing for New Years. I apologized to her and told her I would figure out something.
His mom and I emailed back and forth a few times and we finally decided on New Years Day. Nick's family was celebrating a birthday and they were gracious enough to have it at a restaurant about half way between our houses. Beth and Nick could have their own booth while his family sat separate. I asked Beth if this would work and she got the biggest smile on her face and said, "Sure!"
Let me give you an example of this smile. Nick gave her a necklace for Christmas. A beautiful heart with small red hearts inside. I took some pictures of her wearing it and they all looked like this:
I must have taken 5 or 6 pictures, then got an idea. I asked her, "Do you like the necklace you got from (in a sing-song voice) Nick"?
Okay, there it is!! That's the smile we get every time we say his name! Every. Time. It's adorable!!
Now, where was I? New Years day, we get up and get ready. She is bouncing all morning, happy, excited. We're driving to the restaurant and I told her that Nick's mom invited me to stay. Did she want me to stay, I could sit in a separate booth? Or I could leave and not be there at all? "Not be there at all."
Well fine then! :)
We get to the restaurant and Nick meets us at the door. We go in and I meet his dad. He invited me to sit down but I told him that Beth wants to be alone with her boyfriend and doesn't want me there. He laughed and totally understood. As I'm walking to the door, Beth and Nick follow me and tell me goodbye. Nick said he'd help her with the menu. (She really doesn't need help but I think it's sweet that he wants to be there for her.)
I asked them if I could take their picture.
As I walked out the door, they turned around and the waitress took them to their seats. (I snuck back in and followed them to see where they were going! Turns out, it was right across the aisle from Nicks family. His family was in a little alcove and Beth and Nick were in a booth so even though they had some privacy, his folks had a perfect view of them. Whew!)
I went across the parking lot to the mall and had a Subway Club and a small root beer. It certainly wasn't Olive Garden but I kept smiling as I thought of the two of them!
Then on Sunday, Beth filled out a prayer request.
"I like Nick because I am full in love with him. I hope he love me too."
