How I met the husband, Part V

Part I here.
Part II here.
Part III here.
Part IV here.

We stayed in the husband and his roommate's apartment until October, when the husband and I got our own apartment together. In the meantime, I scrubbed that little two bedroom, one bath within an inch of its life. I cooked dinner for the both of them. I made it homey, and I'm pretty sure the roommate was a little wistful when I left.

Back in the day, I wasn't big on keeping jobs for very long. I suppose if I sat down and really counted, I could give you the number of jobs I've had since age 15. In Arkansas, I worked as a telemarketer twice, I was hired on at a assisted living facility but never went, and I worked at Wal*Mart. It was a sad day when I was hired on there. And it was every bit as bad as you can imagine.

Looking back on it now, I liked the little town of Conway. It was a college town, it was quaint, mostly quiet, clean. But oh wow, I missed my people back home. The parents, who up until that point I usually looked down on in disdain, my dork of a baby sister, my best friend, K. I cried myself to sleep most nights from homesickness while the husband patted my back and whispered soothingly.

The facts that we were dirt poor and his mom was STILL a whackadoodle helped nothing. We barely had reliable transportation half of the time, and his parents just insisted on dropping by unannounced all. the. time. It's hard to hump like rabbits when you're constantly on the lookout for company popping in, and now that I write that, THAT WAS PROBABLY THE WHOLE IDEA.

But things between the husband and I couldn't have been better. We really got along well, and the relationship grew. We meshed.

That Christmas, we saved up enough money to drive back to Indiana for the holiday. We stayed with my parents, and it really hit home how much I missed them. We had an absolute blast those few days.

And on Christmas morning, after everyone had opened all of their presents, there was one small box left. For me. The husband, shy and quiet and generally not good at being center stage, got down on one knee in front of my immediate family and proposed marriage.

I obviously, without a doubt, said yes.