2- Black Book, Spanish Class & Soccer Games

If you haven't read the previous post, you'll probably need that information in order to follow this next post. The numbered posts are a sequence of events in mine and Marcos' early relationship. Start with #1 and read them in order.

For those who may not know me, I have a somewhat conflicted personality. I am driven and ambitious, but super tender-hearted. I am direct to a point, but then I stew about what I have said or done for days wondering if I hurt somebody's feelings or should've handled things differently. Constant inner turmoil I cause myself. So after my first two encounters with Marcos, I found myself feeling badly about the whole situation. It wasn't so much a "I wish I had said yes" feeling, but rather a "I hope that wasn't too harsh" type of thing. The poor kid had two major strikes against him. 1. He came off as a total player, which was never a good thing in my book, and 2. I had just broken up with someone I had dated fairly seriously and wasn't at all looking for a relationship. I was definitely wanting some single, fun, hang out with the girls and just be me time. Marcos went out with my sorority sister once and nothing came of it. But I was right. After I turned him down, he was convinced he'd been put in some sort of LD sorority "black book". He still tells that story today. Not true, but that is what he either believes or thinks adds to our crazy story.

Did I mention Marcos worked in the UB? I thought I was going to die when I found out. I basically ran into him several times a day. I have a hard time getting over embarrassing situations like that so luckily he is a much bigger person than I am. Despite being publicly humiliated and "black booked" by me, :) he continued to say hi or wave hello when he'd see me around. Before long, the awkwardness had mostly faded and we were starting to become friends. Winter quarter had started and I had a pretty difficult Spanish literature class that required A LOT of reading. I'm not exactly a great reader in Spanish. I can understand most things I read, but following an entire story - real literature - was not easy for me to do in another language. So...somehow I got up the courage to ask him to help me with my homework one day. I had read the story and answered the questions. I asked him to read the story and make sure I had answered the questions correctly - to sort of correct my paper for me before I turned it in. These were not short stories or very interesting for that matter, but he was crazy (for me that is). Any time spent with me was worth it to him. I must say I took a little advantage of his generosity. I swear I really did my own homework, but it was easy to have him read the story after I'd read it and then paraphrase it for me to make sure I followed it right. He still laughs about how he'd read this long story for me, break it down into English and then I'd respond, "Okay, that's what I thought it said. Thanks for the help." Poor kid! And I was somewhat oblivious to the fact that he could still possibly like me after all the torture I'd put him through, although his kindness and smile were starting to get to me as we got to know each other better.

During the same quarter, my sorority and the Pikes (Pie Kappa Alpha - one of the fraternities on campus) were playing coed soccer together. The Pikes knew Marcos from around the UB and asked him to play with them. I went to support my sorority sisters and ended up seeing Marcos in action. I have to admit he was pretty cute playing soccer. This is where he thinks the story begins. He is convinced I fell for him when I saw his mad soccer skills. :)