So Ben and I went to highschool together but never really talked much. My sophomore year, his senior year, we slow danced at homecoming. Soon after homecoming he starting dating a girl in my grade and they dated for a little over a year so we never really talked to each other after homecoming. Fast forward to this past summer, we both worked out at the same gym. At the beginning of August, about a week before he had to leave for school he came up and talked to me instead of just waving hello. We stood in the gym and talked for over a hour, after that I just forgot about the rest of my workout and left with a smile on my face.

It was the most I had laughed all summer. In our conversation, he had found out that I had never been on a real date before and he didn't like that. Two days later, we went on our first date. It was a surprise, he showed up to my house, opened my car door, I didn't know what to do. No guy had ever done that for me before. When we finally started driving he told me we were going to Columbia to sit by a lake and just hang out. We got there and sat and again talked for hours. We never ran out if things to talk about. Later in the night he asked me if I wanted to see a movie. We went to go see "Lights Out" and of course, he held my hand during the movie. I had butterflies the whole time, starting something with someone new was so scary but also so exciting.

The movie ended and we made our way home. He sang the whole time, he's a great singer I could listen to him sing for hours. We got to my house and he got out of the car again to open my door. I told him he didnt have to do that and he replied with, "How am I gonna kiss you then" and we had our first kiss. That night I couldnt stop smiling. I went to bed and saw that he had texted me. We got into talking about how we both had such a great time. The funniest thing is we also both admitted that when we danced together at homecoming years ago, we both had huge crushes on each other but never said anything.

He went on to tell me that he had had the urge to talk to me at the gym many times before he did but didnt have the courage to. Just from that one conversation at the gym and our first date, I knew everything would be great from there. We continued to go out to dinner that week and on the Friday before he left we went on another big date. I had never been to the aquarium so we went there and then went to dinner at Fogo de Chão which is an all you can eat meat place (fyi it was delicious). After dinner we sat by the Inner Harbor and he told me exactly how he felt about me. It was nice to have someone be so straight forward with me and not play any games. He told me he wanted to continue whatever was happening between us and see where it went. This was a scary thought considering we had only been talking for a week and I was about to start my freshman year of college, but after the amazing week we had, there was no way I could just go to school and forget about him. We are now dating and go to schools four hours apart from each other so its hard but we make it work, and I've never been happier.