From a Writing Prompt in Chapter Seven

My Parent's Courtship
I don't know much about my parent's courtship, especially from my from my Dad's point of view. He does not talk much about his past, not because he is ashamed of it, but because it either does not come up, or he can't remember the details. I have heard a few bits of the story, but now, at a time when courtship seems to be such an important part of my life I try to fill in the details. My mother and father were both 27 when they met. They might have been shy and afraid of decision and commitment like me, I think, but I know that both were engaged at least once to other people before they met each other, so that theory does not really hold up. Even though both had graduated, they were still hanging around BYU for some reason, which confirms my fear that there is little hope of finding a mate outside of Provo. They met at a mutual friend's house and hit it off immediately. My mother says that she was all ga-ga in love after that first meeting, but she says that it was that way with all of the several people that she fell in love with. I imagine a lot of witty dialogue and playful teasing right from the start, maybe because that is what lovers do in plays and movies. But when I try to think of something my Dad would say in that first meeting, it always comes out as the sort of self-deprecating, ah-huck ah-huck humor that makes him seem so patriarchal when he is talking to family friends and relatives. "Another day, another dollar in the hole" I hear him say, but that does not quite fit the rest of the story, that was supposed to be a quick, whirlwind romance where my Dad brought flowers and chocolate the day after the first date, and gave my Mom a kiss on the forehead. She told all her roommates that he was the one. They only dated six weeks before they were engaged, and for a good portion of that time my Mom was back in Washington, D.C. so their only communication was letters and calls. My Mom always says that they had played the field and that they finally knew what they were looking for by the time they met each other, so they did not have to date long. The romantic in me thinks that it was fate that kept them available so long and made all of their other relationships end in failure. The worry wort in me says that if I ever get to be that old and find my self still single, I would be desperate enough to settle with anyone who would take me.