Rachel and Dave

Saturday March 25, 2006 · Rachel Merritt

Part I: The Set-Up

I wasn’t always so sure about David. Today, I trust the man more than I can trust myself! Yet, if you had told me after our first date that things were going to turn out this way, I would have rolled my eyes and continued my single life and various dating partners.

In 2003, I had just begun my senior year at Indiana University, wrapping up my classes to graduate with my Teaching Degree. The previous summer, I had been dumped. My former boyfriend of five years (together since our sweet 16’s) had found someone new. I was devastated. I was angry, depressed, anxious, hateful, and ready to destroy any male that walked into my path! Especially the one who hurt me so bad. (That is how I felt then, now I am grateful for the experiences and can’t believe that I had ever let myself slump so low based on a choice of a silly boy! I was just a silly girl!)

My mama, Diana, had been my savior during my months of mourning. She helped me stay on track and see hope for the future (remember, I was a hopeless romantic and felt that there was nothing else in life to live for but that silly boy, I would never love another… ohhhhhhh… my life was over)! She despised the boy who had broke my heart and wanted to do everything in her power to help me see a better future without him.

One evening, while I was having dinner with a friend (ok, a very nice and attractive musician who thought I was “the one”), Mama called me ecstatic with good news! She knew someone I could date. I told her thank you, but I was already dating someone. She disregarded this and continued to tell me about this Dave guy.

“Oh! He’s in his early twenties, and has the cutest last name, Duncan! Won’t that be cute, Rachel Duncan? Oh, he’s actually at dinner with Peggy and Ty, at their house, right now!”

“Great,” I thought.

“Call there and get his number,” she said.

I told her there was no way I would be calling this strange guy over at my mom and step-dad’s best friends’ house to get his number! She was nuts! Crazy! She could do it herself if she was that excited!

Which is exactly what she did.

Mom called me back, not as excited as before, and told me that she gave Dave Duncan my phone number. “He’s shy,” she told me.

Part II: The Date

Dave had called and asked me to meet him in Indy the day before Thanksgiving at a coffee shop. I agreed, as this particular coffee shop (CATH Inc.) was directly across the street from MY favorite coffee shop (Cornerstone Coffee).

I arrived early, as I typically always do, and he arrived late, as he typically does. So, really, the date started after 30 minutes of waiting. I sat on a couch, all balled-up with a big mug of coffee and a book I had begun earlier that week. I was almost finished when a guy walked in. I looked up at him while he wasn’t looking toward me and my breath left my chest. I cast my eyes directly back on my book, he had to come find me.

I sat there, waiting for him to come and find me, for fifteen minutes! There were only five people in the shop total! This guy had just sat down and waited for ME to come find HIM! (Not a swooning first impression… he really was shy).

I finally got the nerve (mostly from anger) to get up and directly confront mystery man.

“Are you Dave?”

“Yes,” and he stood up. “Are you Rachel?”

“Yes.”

That was it. Hmm…

“What do you want to do,” he said.

“Have coffee, like we had planned.”

“OK.”

Dave and I walked over to my favorite coffee shop, to discover that it have been bought and now was a fancy upper-class lounge to sip coffee in rather than a funky mismatched globally decorated mess of space I had loved all through high-school.
We talked, we were bored. We had nothing in common (or at least we couldn’t see it at the time).

I was so bored, that I decided to get some errands done that needed ran before I went back down to IU. I dragged this poor boy to Target, on our first date, so that I could shop for some much needed things like shampoo and candy-canes. I felt that I needed something useful to be doing with this time I was spending, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and say goodbye.

We ended up returning to the coffee shop for dinner, but after a tremendous discussion throughout Target and in the car about SOUP.

Part III: The SOUP

David asked if I would like to have dinner while looking at eleven different types of candy-canes. I decided that if this guy were willing to run errands with me on our first date, maybe I should have dinner with him.

The minute that I said, “sure”, Dave responded with the following:
“Great, my mom’s making soup if you’d like to go over and eat it!”

Whoa, this was a little abrupt and way to weird for me. I really didn’t know how to respond, but I do know that while this guy talked, he said the word “soup” over and over and over, that it began to become a bit hysterical.

“No, I do not want to go get soup.”
“Why, don’t you like soup?”
“What kind of soup is it?”
“Chicken soup with rice.”
“I don’t like soup.”
“I love soup.”
“Ok, then get some at a restaurant.”
“But it’s really good soup!”
“Why?”
“It’s just REALLY GOOD!”

I was going to strangle this wired-o before I even had a chance to ride back to my car at CATH’s. When we finally got to my car, because we couldn’t talk about a restaurant to eat at with all that SOUP conversing, David suggested that we just eat at Cornerstone.

I ordered a BLT with fries. David ordered a salad. (A salad? ok, this little guy is skinny, he really needs steak and potatoes).
When our food came, I dug in! Mmmmmm Bacon! On the other hand, David used his fork to move around the pecans and dried cherries on his bed of spinach.
‘Oh my,’ I thought to myself, ‘this guy has an eating disorder! Could this date get any weirder!’

On our way out to my car, I was relieved the night was over, and my Mama would be glad that I tried. I couldn’t wait to get into that driver’s seat. (Terrible, I know, but I was disturbed by this David fellow.)

Right as I had unlocked my door, and put my right foot inside, David shouted to me, “Would you like to go to the Children’s Museum this Friday?”

I was shocked! He remembered that tiny little piece of information about my love for that place from our hours and hours of tedious discussions. I fell for it (and felt sorry for him, he was pretty sweet).

“Sure, that would be great.” I got into the car and left.

Part IV: Friday

All day Friday I was dreading 4:00, the pick-up time. I actually tried very hard to get out of it. My mom said, “NO! YOU PROMISED HIM!” My friends said, “Don’t go, he’ll be fine.” My dad said, “You make up your own mind, you’re mom will get over it. Trust your instincts, if you don’t like him, don’t go.”

I went.

I was in such a sour mood about going, that I told him that the Children’s Museum wasn’t something that I wanted to do anymore. We went to see “ELF” instead. Watching him laugh at childish comedy made a little glimmer of attraction set in. We then went to Don Pablo’s (again, I ate, he did not. He did nibble a chip or two down with his Margarita).

After dinner, he did not want to take me home, he told me this. I liked that. Instead, he took me home the LONG way. All around town! Riding in his car, while he got excited about rounding turns at 40 miles per hour really got me excited to. (Emotionally, not the way you’re thinking). I watched David laugh and smile. I fell for him. Right then and there. I knew from that moment this was my “one”.

I can’t explain why it happened then, but every time David excites my life I fall again and again, just like the Day after Thanksgiving, 2003.