Our Story: Part One

Our Story: Part One

(How we met and came to be)

February 2015

It all starts with a mysterious Mexican man on the shady Provo River trail.
My roommate at the time Kylie came into the apartment one cold February night with grocery bags on her arms. She told of us of an encounter she'd had:
As she was struggling with her grocery cart on the rocky river trail path (yes- we were car-less and often had to push our groceries home in a shopping cart) she was stopped by a young man who asked if she needed help. They introduced themselves, he helped her with the grocery cart, they exchanged numbers and then they parted. Kylie told us, “I forgot his name. It started with a G... It was some Mexican name that I couldn’t pronounce.”

What was really going on: Giuseppe, being the cute, adorable social person that he is, was on the hunt for some friends. He had just moved from Orange County to Provo. He was about to start his new job in the state licensing department for Vivint, hadn't yet attended the singles ward, and was ready to make some friends.

On Saturday, February 28th, Kylie invited/asked him to give us a ride to the stake 50’s dance. He of course said yes.

My roommates and I spent an hour blasting music, perfecting our makeup, borrowing clothes, ratting our hair, and talking about our love interests at the time. (Unfortunately for Giuseppe, Kylie was only fixated on her now-husband Corey haha).

Then Giuseppe came up to the apartment. Somebody let him inside, and they all started chatting with him. I finished up my hair, walked into the living room and saw a tall, thin guy with perfect hair and adorable eyes. We introduced ourselves, figured out pretty quickly that he was just about as Mexican as I am (literally. We are both ¼ Mexican), and headed out to the dance. My amazing friend Emily Cortopassi was having a sleepover with me that night, but she was exhausted from work that day and decided to stay in.

Later that evening at the dance, Megan and I went into the bathroom to fix our lipstick. Kylie came in and told us that everyone was partnered up to learn a dance from the instructors, and Giuseppe didn’t have a partner!

I don’t know why I was so adamant that he dance with me and not Megan, but I ran into the gym and approached him. He asked me to dance, and I nonchalantly agreed.

We had fun dancing together. I remember thinking, “what if I married this guy?” and I spent some time wondering what it would be like. (I pretty much did that with everyone though, is that weird??)

We were having a really good time and then the dumb dance instructor told us we needed to switch partners. Before I could even do anything, a new guy asked me to dance and we learned the rest of the steps together. This guy was the worst, he was like a professional ballroom dancer and he had no patience with me. He took it waaaaaaay too seriously. Luckily, I didn’t have to be with him for too long before it was time for freestyle dancing. I broke away from him as fast as I could and met up with the roomies and Giuseppe. We danced wildly for about an hour, then Kylie wanted to leave to meet up with her sister for a bonfire.

Giuseppe drove us back, and came up to our apartment with us. While my roommates were changing into bonfire clothes, I turned on my favorite song- Style- and blasted it. Giuseppe and I danced around the kitchen crazily while singing along. It was the best. In that moment I knew that we had some kind of a connection.

Emily and I joined everyone for the bonfire for just a little bit. I talked to Giuseppe about his new life in Utah, as well as his mission in Italy. He told me he was going to start at LDS Business College in the fall, which of course grabbed my attention. In high school I wanted to go there so badly, but it just wasn’t right for me.

Emily and I left early, and we pulled my mattress into the living room. We were acting kinda psycho, making weird videos of each other and laughing about everything and reminiscing on the old days, and you know, all around college girl shenanigans.

Everyone (including Giuseppe) came back into the apartment and hung out in the kitchen. Emily and I ignored them, we had a grand old time with each other.

When Giuseppe left, I asked him to tell us goodnight in Italian. He did, and then he left.

The next day (Sunday) I started talking to him at ward prayer (haha oh the singles ward…). As we were chatting, another guy I was friends with came up to talk to me. Giuseppe started inching away. I don’t remember doing this, but apparently I leaned over and stepped on his foot, asking him to stay. He was thrilled by this.

We sat together on the bean bag, and he told me animatedly about his experience skydiving. Then he mentioned there were some people from his work going swing dancing in Salt Lake, and he invited me. Of course I said yes, and then we exchanged numbers. Just then, Bishop Redd came up and crouched down next to us to chat. He said, “well look at you two…” all matchmaker-like. Haha.

The next day at FHE, Bishop Redd and I were talking as I was on the sidelines during the dodgeball game. (Of course). We had this conversation:

“So Katrina, are you still going to go on a mission?”

“What?! Of course! Why would you ask that?”

“I saw you with Giuseppe last night! I think you might be planning a wedding soon…”

“What?! No way! We just met, and I am for sure going on a mission.”

“Okay….."

March 2015

Our first date was SO GOOD! I had been on quite a few first dates during my six months in Provo, and the majority of them were blaaaaaaah. NOT this one. During the car ride he showed me some of his favorite songs, then I showed him some of mine. I asked personal questions about his life, made him uncomfortable, lightened things up and then we were there! (Okay, so far this sounds kind of blah but it wasn't. It was wonderful.)

We had so much fun at the dance. We went absolutely crazy- he was lifting me up and swinging me around and throwing me in the air and it was just insane. We have never been able to replicate what we did that night!

After dancing for an amazing hour, we were exhausted and he mentioned something about IHOP having free pancakes that day.

Yum… ;)

We drove to the nearest IHOP only to discover that the promotion had ended an hour ago. So he just drove away.

I remember thinking that was so weird, no food on a date?! He must be really cheap.

Nevertheless, he still left a really good impression on me.

We went on another date the next week. His State Farm agent had given him tickets to a jazz game. I don’t like basketball at all but I was excited to spend the evening with him. At the game I discovered he didn’t really care for basketball either!

I asked him about other sports and discovered he didn’t care much about ANY sports.

I loved him.

Haha just kidding, but it was a verrrry appealing quality. --He has since changed, watching late night football games with my dad and brothers whenever we are at my parent’s house and constantly checking his fantasy football app. Thanks, dad :(

Anyway, we had a really fun time at the game talking and laughing, and he even took me out for dinner afterwards!

We went to his evening institute class together for our third date. He made lots of comments and sat really close to me and he smelled divine. That’s all I remember. I took him to my favorite sushi restaurant afterwards!

We hung out a lot between these dates, movie nights with people from the ward, me bringing treats over to his apartment, him giving me rides places, hanging out at church activities, etc. We were constantly texting and trying to spend time with each other. It was pretty apparent something was going on between the two of us.

One Saturday at the end of March, I was in Heber, having just had another sleepover with Emily Cortopassi. Emily had gone to work, and I sat at my parent’s house wondering what I was going to do for the next five hours before they would take me to Provo. I decided to text Giuseppe, asking him to come hang out with me.

45 minutes later, he showed up at the house. I introduced him to my mom, felt horribly awkward, grabbed Giuseppe’s arm and yanked him out of the house. We decided to go on a drive through the mountains.

We ended up at a gorgeous, scenic cliff above the whole valley, and he put his arm around me.

Suddenly he said, “Katrina, I really like you.”

The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, “oh.”

Awkward silence.

His arm felt so heavy around my body.

“...I like you too.” But it was too late. The moment was gone.

We got back into the car, Giuseppe looking defeated. I felt awful.

We drove to Salt Lake to pick up my cousins and bring them to my apartment for a sleepover that evening. I lightened up the mood in the car, and then I reached over and held his hand. I had a lot to make up for haha.

We picked up Romney, Reagan, and Sophie and the five of us talked and laughed until we reached my apartment.

I felt soooo stupid for what I had said earlier, so I kissed him on the cheek before he drove away that night, hoping he would interpret it as an I’m-an-idiot-please-don’t-give-up-on-me kind of kiss.

ANYWAY long story short, he kissed me the next day. And then the day after that we had our infamous conversation…

K: About that kiss last night… You were going way too fast.

G: Oh. I’m sorry, maybe we are moving too fast. I’m really sorry, I-

K: No, no, no we’re not moving too fast, your mouth was moving way too fast! I didn’t like it.

G: Oh. Haha. Well, we can try it again? I’ll go slower.

K: Please.

And then all was well.

We spent the next week together, and I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to be his girlfriend or not. On March 30th, we finally had the discussion.

He sat on my couch and put his hands on my shoulders. Looking me right in the eye he asked if I could be his girlfriend. And I just decided to go for it!

April 2015

That first month was SO GREAT. We spent every second together, and it was a blast.

Obviously, it was a good call.

Soon, another call came: my mission call. I was SO excited. You don't even know. People were always questioning me like, "don't you have a real serious boyfriend? are you really excited for this??" Um, yes. I was.

I opened my call at the end of April. Giuseppe couldn't be there because he had a paint ball tournament in Vegas that weekend. I was secretly glad, I didn't want to mix the two at all.

I was called to the BULGARIA, SOFIA mission.

I was stoked. I wanted to learn a language SO BAD. And such an obscure one?! Yes please!

Even better, I wouldn't be leaving until August 26th! The second I read "Bulgaria" on my call, I jumped a few lines down to see when I'd be leaving. I wanted to have a lot of time you see...

Anyway, I told Giuseppe that late that night when he came home. His reaction wasn't as screamy-excited as all of my friends and family, but he was happy for me and excited that I would be going to Europe.

May 2015

The next few weeks of our relationship were amazing- we of course spent every second together and became more and more obsessed with each other.

Then I started worrying that he was going to tell me he loved me.

Oh gosh. That would mean things would really be serious!

I remember the first time he called me ‘babe’. I ran to my roommates as soon as I got home and told them of the weird thing that had just happened. I didn’t like it at all. It sounded so cheesy. I mean I wasn’t a babe. Ew.

Little did I know that I would soon become overly obsessed with terms of endearment.

Pretty soon we were babe-ing each other like it was the most casual thing in the world- and it was.

(I was such a jerk to my sweet baby! The worst.)

Anyway, back to the first “I love you.”

We had just gotten out of his evening institute class together. We were sitting in the parking lot of the Branbury. It was raining really hard, so of course I blasted Taylor’s “Sad Beautiful Tragic” in his car. I didn’t let him speak during the song.

(The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to Liz right after):

Then later on my porch we were just sort of staring at each other and these are the exact words he said, "So... I need to tell you something. I've been wanting to tell you for a couple weeks now and I'm not really good with words, but... I love you. Like, a lot a lot."

AH, right?!

I giggled or something dumb and told him I loved him too. He told me how to say it in Italian, I told him how to say it in French.

I really started to love him after that point. Not only was I having a blast with him but our lives were meshing into each others and it felt so perfect.

The only problem? My mission….