A Better Story Than This...?

I called Jen one night in mid-December and just lost it. I had just been essentially dissed by a guy I liked because he didn't want to date a virgin, and I was feeling incredibly sorry for myself. So, the verbal butt-whooping she proceeeded to give me was deserved, and forced me to try Internet dating; specifically Match.com.

I finished my profile at 2 a.m., and twenty-four hours later I'd received over 100 winks and e-mails. I was over-freaking-whelmed. Forty-eight hours later, this guy wrote me about how amazing he thought it was that I was waiting until marriage and was so impressed that I was so honest about it. He admitted that he had the same intentions, but didn't have the "stones" to put it on his profile.

It wasn't til a few days later though, that another so-called suitor wanted me to know just how good he'd make my "first time" (what am I, a Trophy Virgin?!), that I just had to ask the one guy I could the question this jerk had asked me: what if you get to your wedding night and the sex just...isn't that great. That opened up a Pandora's box of e-mails, the longest of which was over 7 pages! In them, I once admitted that I agreed with a Post Secret postcard that said "I think I deserve a better story than 'We met on Match.com'." This is important; keep this in mind.

We've been dating ever since. If you can call this dating! I've never experienced anything, anyone like this. So we were both incredibly excited for Valentine's Day! Mike took me to Dominic's for dinner and we decided for P.F. Chang's for dessert shots! Afterwards, I was finally able to give him my gift - Valentine's Old Navy PJ pants, the Family Guy Starwars spoof (he freaked out!) and peanut M&Ms.

It was then that he got a book out of his bag. He handed me this beautiful red book entitled "A Better Story Than This...?"

"Read the forward," he told me, as I opened it, surprised that after continually telling me he hadn't bought me a gift! My eyes, however, immediately went to the Table of Contents. I thought it was a note of some sort, but then I realized: these were the titles to each of our e-mails! My brain couldn't even comprehend until I kept going into the book. Page and pages of beautiful type and they were all our e-mails! In chronological order, spell and grammar checked, with each title in different font at the top to begin each "chapter". And it was red. He knew it was my favorite color, so he actually had them use the inside of a book binding fabric because it was the better color. He knew I liked silver better than gold, so despite the store's objections, he chose silver for the lettering. And he went to TWELVE different places almost giving up on what he wanted to do before finding an obscure antique book dealer in Loveland that could make an actual book for him.

"Happy Valentine's day, Kendra. This is our story. And I love you."

And then, after I completely lost it with this precious gift in my hands, "Um...watch the mascara!"

Yeah. I haven't stopped smiling since.