HFH: Now

When I finished my swim, I was so happy–maybe happier than I’d ever been. I took that huge risk sending that email–and Elder came! And he was here, at that very moment, in our house. With us. With me. To see me. Wow.

He’s here now!

I can’t believe how amazing he is. That first afternoon, he just kept going around cleaning up all the leftover dishes from our flirty party.

“I enjoy doing dishes. Is it such a big deal to do something you enjoy, and something you know other people will appreciate?”

Elder’s here, and I can look at this every day. Those shoulders, that… wow. Ok, moving along.

Oh, man. This miracle of nature and all-that-is is here right now in our house!

His mom and dad and sisters raised him right, for if anything needs cleaning, he’s on it! With a smile. This is Elder Wolff. And guess what? I can say his name now! I don’t have to hide it or whisper it. I can say it, because he got my email and he came. Here. To our house. To see us. To see me. Elder Wolff. Elder.

Why do I want to run my fingers over the basin after he’s cleaned it?

He’s always smiling. I found him in the upstairs sun room, reading The Untamed Treachery of the Heart with the biggest grin on his face. I’ve read that novel. I wonder if he was smiling at the parts that made me smile when I read it and my imagination wandered off towards him.

“This book is so clever! Great details and descriptions and how-to’s.”

Everybody in the house loves having him here. Just like when he was here during Plum Day, he fits in as if he’s always been part of our household.

Emma told me that they shared a heart-to-heart in the work-out room. They really connected during Plum Day, so I was happy that they were able to pick up right where they’d left off.

“See, once I knew how she felt, I couldn’t stay away!”

Emma confessed that she told him that I’d been crazy about him since the first time I saw him. It makes me feel so embarrassed and so high school to think of them talking about my crush on him–but Emma said he actually “squeed” so I shouldn’t feel embarrassed, but that made me more embarrassed.

“Really? When I was playing with that lump of clay?”

If he only knew how I felt after he left, how I could hardly think of him without the sole of my right foot tingling, how every single day seemed always in some way to turn back towards him.

“I wonder if what Emma says is true. Pretty sweet, if so.”

We found ourselves sitting together at the kitchen table.

“Thanks for doing the dishes and for cleaning,” I told him. “That was really sweet. I mean, you’re really sweet. And not just for doing the dishes, just because…”

I stopped talking out of shyness and because when I see his smile, it gets hard to talk. It gets kinda hard to breathe, actually.

“You’re as sweet as a cupcake!”

Alex joined us.

“You know,” he said. “We’ve got this really nice rocket ship out back that Cathy made. Forrest, Gray, and I helped a little bit. But it’s her baby. It’s just sitting there waiting for an inaugural ride.”

“Errr, Alex? Do you have to bring that up so soon? Elder just got here. We’re just getting reacquainted.”

“I know!” Elder said. “I noticed that rocket ship when I was here for Plum Day. My family has a history with rocket ships.”

He’s not put off? He’s actually interested?

Building that rocket was a milestone for my aspiration, and I never really thought about using it in the way that Alex was implying.

But the idea sounded sort of intriguing. Maybe. Someday. Not right away. Not for the first time. But maybe later.

And all of the sudden, I felt so fluttery inside because I realized I was thinking that there would be a first time, and I was thinking about who it would be with, and I was thinking that there might even be subsequent times, and the whole all-of-that felt so incredibly delicious.