A quirky love story

Dress: Anthropologie / tights: Joe Fresh / shoes: Winners / Shirt: Vero Moda / Belt: Thrifted
Linking up to: Style Elixir

WARNING: This post is kinda like a diary post. -An extremely public diary post that is- 

Not many people know it, but my Ben is a romantic. A quirky romantic, but a romantic nonetheless.

I was thinking this morning about Ben's and my past Valentine's we've celebrated. I honestly can only remember two. TWO. And we've been together for seven years now. 

Ben is the type of guy who doesn't perform over the top cheesy romantic gestures on Valentine's Day. I ask (or rather demand) a hand made card with a sappy love letter inside and he always pulls through. Last year, he made it at 7:00p.m. after he came home from school. Which didn't matter, he sat down and made my mushy card! (Which they all still make me cry every time I read them)

While Ben may not be crazy good at delivering these wild over the top acts of love, he does deliver the sweet, sincere and quiet gestures of affection.

Once upon a time, maybe eight years ago, when I was a freshman in University, I was over the moon for a certain guy. A sophomore who didn't go to the same University as me and I had only ever seen three or four times in my life, but he was amazing in my eyes. He was fun, smart, stylish, and always made me feel like I was the most special thing to him. This amazing guy, who we will now call Ryan because all Ryan's are smooth talkers, had promised to take me to a Valentine's Day dance that my University was putting on. I had bought two tickets and my roommate and I had purchased two beautiful dresses to wear.

A few weeks before, I had met this other amazing guy who was tall, attractive, a Canadian and a bit quirky. He spent most of his time teasing me about...well everything about me. My hair, clothes, choice of vocabulary, and most of all, the guys I dated. We were hanging out more and more and one day he told me he thought I was pretty. I teased him by saying, "What? You don't think I'm gorgeous? Like a white tiger or something?" To which opened the door for him to begin his relentless teasing. 

Finally the day arrived for the Valentine's day dance. As soon as my classes were over, I began a very intense beauty routine. I took a forever long shower, moisturized and self tanned my body, brushed AND whitened my teeth, curled my hair to be just perfect, applied my makeup so carefully and finished my Valentine for Ryan. 

I waited ever so patiently as I watched all the other girls on my floor be picked up by their dates and go off to the dance. My roommate and her boyfriend began to show concern for me but I told them to go on and that I would meet them later at the dance. Finally, the time for the dance came and I continued to wait. I thought I should probably call and remind Ryan about the dance. I called and no one answered. I brushed it off with the thought that he was probably running late and on his way. Thirty minutes after the dance had started, I called Ryan again. This time he picked up. I asked him if he was on his way to the dance and he replied with, "I'm helping a friend out with a radio show and I'll be there as soon as I'm done." I felt a little sad that Ryan and I would miss some of the dance, but I was so excited to see him and be able to spend time with him, that I didn't really care if he was a little late. So I began to wait again. My roommate began to call and see if we were coming at all. I felt silly in telling her the reason Ryan was running late but I tried to sound proud, or rather convince myself, of how selfless Ryan was in helping a friend out. 

Finally, it was the beginning of the last hour of the dance, and while I sat in the quiet on my dorm room bed, my phone rang. It was Ryan. My heart pounded as I answered his call only to find out that he wouldn't make it to the dance and how truly sorry he was, that I should go without him and have a great time and that he would make it up to me soon. As I hung up the phone I began to realize what had just happened. Ryan had stood me up and my heart was breaking. I remember trashing the Valentine I had made for Ryan and thinking about how stupid I was to like a guy like that in the first place. 

I decided that I was going to go to the dance! That I was going to have an amazing time! And I was going to go with the only guy who could make me laugh in a time like this! I remember quickly calling my tall quirky friend and telling him how I happened to have two tickets to the Valentine's Day dance and that I would love it if he would come with me. I expected him to say yes. I expected us to head straight over to the dance. I expected us to dance like idiots and laugh til our sides ached. I didn't expect him to ask me a question, "Isn't it almost over? Weren't you supposed to go with someone else?" Even though the words were different, all I could hear was, "Did some guy just blow you off?" 

I continued to try and convince my friend about all the fun we would have! How it would be more fun than whatever he was currently doing. -which turned out to be laundry. I expected him to laugh and say, "Let's go! Forget laundry!" What I didn't expect was, "I can't tonight. Sorry. I should really finish my laundry for next week." We ended our conversation and hung up our phones. I remember closing my cell, turning off my dorm room light, crawling into bed and literally crying myself to sleep. 

The next morning at around 8:00a.m., I awoke to the fire alarm in my dorm building. It took everything I had in me to get up, open my swollen eyes and walk to the door. As soon as I put my hand on the door knob, the alarm stopped. Someone had pulled the alarm. Isn't that just peachy? I decided to go to the bathroom, instead of going back to bed, and begin cleaning up the disaster of smeared mascara that was all over my face. When I opened the door, I felt something under my feet. I looked down and saw that I was standing on something. A picture of a white tiger paper clipped onto a piece of cardboard. Completely confused, I picked up the picture and flipped it over to see that written on the cardboard was a note. 

The note said: "Miss Cait, When I was at Wal-Mart I saw this sweet picture and it reminded me of you! It's a "gorgeous" white tiger. -Ben" That crazy Canadian had somehow sneaked into my dorm building and quietly slipped the picture under my door while I was sleeping. That simple act of sweetness was exactly what I needed at that moment. I called Ben and thanked him for the "art work." I then learnt that the reason he didn't want to go to the dance with me was because he didn't want to be second choice.

That first little act of sweetness from Ben was what really made me take notice of how incredible he truly is. I'll take my quirky romantic Canadian instead of an over the top Romeo any day.