It was the first event of the new school year and at the time I was a Board Member for Partnership in Education, so I knew most of the staff at the building. I walked into the kitchen area and saw one of the ladies there that I knew. I asked her where my flowers were from the previous night and she told me they were in the back cooler... well...I had never been in their back cooler before, but she told me that Bryan would help me. I quickly told her that I didn't know who the hell BRYAN was... but I guess I would find him.
I walked into the back area and there he was... cutting limes into wedges.
That is what I remember the most. He was cutting limes. And...He was easy on the eyes....
I said "Hi. I'm Jennifer from Twisted Vines. I am here to work on the flowers."
He said "Hi. I'm Bryan. I'm the Chef."
I said something stupid like "I didn't know that we even HAD a chef for the district"
He went on to explain that he had been the Chef for the district but had been in Iraq cooking for the troops...For over two years. OH..WOW. I am a huge smart ass and at that moment felt like a huge dumb ass.
Anyway... I normally set up a table and just kind of worked in the corner by myself and talked to the ladies from across the room while they worked on food... but this CHEF guy wasn't going to have any of that. He started moving stuff off of his work table (it was a big table, plenty of room) and told me that I could just work right there next to him... I was like, OK.. if that is fine with you then it is fine with me... then he went to the cooler and pulled out all of these boxes full of flower arrangements and brought to me so that I didn't have to do it... and I got to work.
We chit chatted a bit and he was talking to the ladies that worked there and they were prepping for this lunch thing. I was reworking all of these centerpieces and there were about twenty of them so it took a little while. As time went on, all of a sudden he is standing next to me trying to feed me a bite of some strawberry dessert that he is serving at lunch... and by trying to feed it to me, I mean he had the fork AT MY MOUTH trying to put it IN MY MOUTH... I was like, "whoa, buddy, get outta my personal space there"... chef or no chef, I am not the kind of person who likes people to feed me when I have only been around you for 45 minutes... so I kind of grab the fork from him and taste the dessert. It was pretty awesome.
Now don't get me wrong, I thought he was good looking. Really good looking. A little bit cocky... but in that good way... he was all muscled up and handsome. Clean cut with his starched chef coat on. Just yummy right there. And I thought to myself that it was going to be nice to see him from time to time when I had a luncheon there... and I would get to eat some gourmet food and he was eye candy for a single girl. But I never thought anything about dating him. AT ALL.
I had rolled up in the building that morning in some blue jeans, a black top, flip flops and I don't even remember if I had my hair fixed or not... it was probably in a ponytail. I know that I had makeup on because that is always the case... and I had on jewelry... but I had not put any special effort into my appearance, because hey, I was just going to be in a kitchen with a bunch of women reworking flowers from the night before... I didn't know there was going to be a HOT guy in there trying to feed me dessert.
Anyway... after I finished I left and went to work. I had a wedding that weekend and I went to the studio to start to work on it. It was just a normal day. But I did think about him a little. OK. A lot.
The next afternoon I was working at the studio and I looked up and who did I see?
The Hot Chef walking into my studio.
You know what I thought? "Shit. He is here to get flowers for his equally hot girlfriend."
He came in and said he just wanted to see where my place was and really, he just to get to know me. Ummm... excuse me, what did you just say???
He was there to see me. I almost fell over. I had to sit down. Thank goodness I had about fifteen corsages to make for a wedding. I told him that he was welcome to sit and visit and he did. I don't even remember what we talked about.
I do remember that Ms. Kaye Baxter came in to get flowers for her daughter because she was coming in that weekend... I told him to sit just tight because Ms. Kaye came in all the time and it wouldn't take long... I remember her winking at me... lol...
He left later that afternoon and we texted back and forth. Later that night he came back by because I was there late still working on flowers and we talked and talked and listened to music and he ASKED if he could kiss me and it was a horrible first kiss and we both thought that it was (because we were leaning across a table full of wedding flowers)... so we decided to try it another way... we moved in close and that worked much better... and were both relieved that the other could kiss.
The thing is... I had been praying that God would send me someone... but I was very specific. He was going to have to send someone THROUGH MY FRONT DOOR... that was the prayer that I spoke. I worked weekends... I am a designer and wedding planner... I don't have a normal schedule.. I needed someone who had the same kind of job that I do and someone who was artistic, creative and didn't get pissed because I work 60 to 80 hours a week. I wanted someone with the same interests, who loved Christmas, who had the same values, work ethic, religious beliefs. I wanted someone who was a Godly man, who liked football, loved fall, Texas country music, Shiner Bock, held my hand and loved me more than anything.
And there he was. He walked in my door. Wearing a Texas Tiger Football shirt. We clicked immediately.
I didn't know that by loving so hard we would also deal with so much pain. Business, Kids, Cancer, Death, Betrayal, Moves, Losing our Zoe Jane. Two years later he asked me if I wish that I could go back and change things. Would I go a different direction?
No. There is no love without pain. People think that we lead a charmed life. It seems that we have it all at times...Sometimes from the outside people see what they want to see. They don't see the true essence of a couple. They don't see the ties that bind them together. Some couples have stronger threads than others. We make it because without the other we simply can't be.
When you meet your soul mate then you know it. I wouldn't have wanted Zoe Jane to have had any other man as her father. Bryan is a fair man. He is complicated. He has scars. He is strong because he has weathered many storms in his life from a young age. He loves deeply and he is loyal. He is as gentle as he is hard. His stare can intimidate you as much as the grin that spreads across his face can warm your heart.
So two years, new ventures, lots of smiles, tears, love and prayers later, he is my Superman... the one who wakes me up too early every morning just so that he can hold and kiss me... the daddy to my little girl in heaven and the one I blame for all this extra weight... My Chef. My Love. The One Who Walked Through My Front Door.
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