Chapter Two: The Hopeless Romantic
Brad was a hopeless romantic. I discovered this in the days that followed our initial meeting. For example, one slow day, we were on registers side-by-side and I was helping him bag items since no one was in my line. He mentioned that he had to figure out where he could buy two roses, (or maybe it was 3, I don't now recall), because his two month, (or 3), anniversary was coming up with his girlfriend and he had to get her the appropriate number of roses (and Hershey's kisses apparently) to celebrate the appropriate number of months.
Now I am SURE that I was not wistful about this. I wasn't yet smitten with him but I'd never heard of such a thing... a guy actually celebrating something so insignificant to most others. Indeed, I consider a 2 month anniversary rather insignificant. I was thinking more along the lines of "what a strange guy" rather than "Awwww! How sweet!" That's just how I roll. Brad will tell you I wiped the romantic clean out of him because that's just not my thing. It never has been. However, it's memorable to me simply because it was the first time I recognized the novelty that is Brad Kelly.
We had a number of casual conversations during our time together at Walmart. One was, and this is silly, him asking me how I kept my skin so clear. "A bar of soap," was my reply. I was blessed with pretty spectacular skin so I never put much thought into what I used on my face. That was when I hear all about his skin problems and I remember saying maybe he should just try a bar of soap. :-) Ha! I feel a little bad always bringing up my poor husband's skin problems but I can't help what I remember. Let's just say that his skin problems never really cleared up until he changed his diet (correction, until I changed his diet).
I met Brad's girlfriend at the same time I first saw his dorm room. He had probably told me at work to come by and visit him because we discovered that we were not only in the same dorm, but also on the same floor. So I moseyed on over there and found that he had the Creme de La Creme as far as dorm rooms went. Each floor in our building, in addition to regular 2-person rooms, had 8 3-person rooms. They were huge. The closets were huge. Freshman coveted those dorm rooms because we never had the slightest chance of getting them. Well Brad was a senior and he, by some bizarre circumstances of fate, had that 3-person room ALL to himself. Besides the size of the room, the decoration of the room itself was a sight to behold. Brad had the entire ceiling strung with Christmas lights. One set was a Valentine's set so there was a string of big hearts crossing the ceiling. The walls were also strung with Christmas lights, but they were also covered, wall-to-wall, with giant hand-painted banners. The banners were probably painted by the cheerleaders or pep club as they were "Go Cats" type things. He also had a fish-tank which was a pretty big no-no. The floor was covered with thick purple football field turf.
Sitting on one of the unused beds was Brad's girlfriend. I have to tell you I don't remember a single thing that came out of her mouth probably because she didn't say much. I later learned that Brad's friends had termed her "the ice queen." I'm not even sure if she smiled in greeting. In later interactions with her and from what Brad would later tell me, she was one of the coldest people I'd ever met. I can't even begin to figure out why Brad started dating her in the first place... oh wait, I know. She was a little on the chunky side (Brad likes some meat on the bones) and she had big boobs. So she was good looking. That's why. Sheesh. Men.
It was a short visit. You'd hightail it out of there too if the ice queen was giving you the stare-down. Brad tells me they broke up shortly after that...January I believe, when he traded up to Kristen #2 (that's not her real name but Brad, in his short lifetime, had a fairly serious relationship with 2 girls at different times who had the same name so we differentiate them with #1 and #2). Regardless, I didn't see the inside of Brad's dorm room, again until the following semester in the Spring. He was MIA when I returned to work in January after the Christmas break. I finally saw him on campus and would soon discover that he was head over heels in love with Kristen #2.
Now I am SURE that I was not wistful about this. I wasn't yet smitten with him but I'd never heard of such a thing... a guy actually celebrating something so insignificant to most others. Indeed, I consider a 2 month anniversary rather insignificant. I was thinking more along the lines of "what a strange guy" rather than "Awwww! How sweet!" That's just how I roll. Brad will tell you I wiped the romantic clean out of him because that's just not my thing. It never has been. However, it's memorable to me simply because it was the first time I recognized the novelty that is Brad Kelly.
We had a number of casual conversations during our time together at Walmart. One was, and this is silly, him asking me how I kept my skin so clear. "A bar of soap," was my reply. I was blessed with pretty spectacular skin so I never put much thought into what I used on my face. That was when I hear all about his skin problems and I remember saying maybe he should just try a bar of soap. :-) Ha! I feel a little bad always bringing up my poor husband's skin problems but I can't help what I remember. Let's just say that his skin problems never really cleared up until he changed his diet (correction, until I changed his diet).
I met Brad's girlfriend at the same time I first saw his dorm room. He had probably told me at work to come by and visit him because we discovered that we were not only in the same dorm, but also on the same floor. So I moseyed on over there and found that he had the Creme de La Creme as far as dorm rooms went. Each floor in our building, in addition to regular 2-person rooms, had 8 3-person rooms. They were huge. The closets were huge. Freshman coveted those dorm rooms because we never had the slightest chance of getting them. Well Brad was a senior and he, by some bizarre circumstances of fate, had that 3-person room ALL to himself. Besides the size of the room, the decoration of the room itself was a sight to behold. Brad had the entire ceiling strung with Christmas lights. One set was a Valentine's set so there was a string of big hearts crossing the ceiling. The walls were also strung with Christmas lights, but they were also covered, wall-to-wall, with giant hand-painted banners. The banners were probably painted by the cheerleaders or pep club as they were "Go Cats" type things. He also had a fish-tank which was a pretty big no-no. The floor was covered with thick purple football field turf.
Sitting on one of the unused beds was Brad's girlfriend. I have to tell you I don't remember a single thing that came out of her mouth probably because she didn't say much. I later learned that Brad's friends had termed her "the ice queen." I'm not even sure if she smiled in greeting. In later interactions with her and from what Brad would later tell me, she was one of the coldest people I'd ever met. I can't even begin to figure out why Brad started dating her in the first place... oh wait, I know. She was a little on the chunky side (Brad likes some meat on the bones) and she had big boobs. So she was good looking. That's why. Sheesh. Men.
It was a short visit. You'd hightail it out of there too if the ice queen was giving you the stare-down. Brad tells me they broke up shortly after that...January I believe, when he traded up to Kristen #2 (that's not her real name but Brad, in his short lifetime, had a fairly serious relationship with 2 girls at different times who had the same name so we differentiate them with #1 and #2). Regardless, I didn't see the inside of Brad's dorm room, again until the following semester in the Spring. He was MIA when I returned to work in January after the Christmas break. I finally saw him on campus and would soon discover that he was head over heels in love with Kristen #2.
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