[In Part I, I was unwittingly serving my future husband and his buddies at the Outback Steakhouse, where I was waitressing. If I'd known, I probably wouldn't have chosen my first words to him as "G-Day, Mates! Welcome to the Outback Steakhouse!"]

Two of the guys decided to order beers  - Michelobe Ultra, I believe. The third guy didn’t order anything; he explained sheepishly that he was acting as designated driver.

I had two other tables to serve, but once these guys told me they were out to celebrate DragonTattoo’s birthday, I knew that I had a chance of a really good tip. I had girls at my other tables; I couldn’t really flirt with them to get a good tip. These guys though? Prime targets. I was determined to make my 25% – the tip I figured I could get if I shook my ass a little extra after I delivered their beers – and considering the way they ordered two appetizers and a crapload of beer… well that was a considerable amount of dough in my pocket.

Not to mention that two of them were pretty cute. I spent a little too much time at their table; I was actually sat twice at my other two tables before they were ready to leave. I spent most of my time just chatting with them. I told them where I was going to school (pity me!) and that I was a music major. DragonTattoo joked that he might want to go see an opera one day; I wanted to show off, and so I suggested an operetta – shorter, comical, and generally a better way to ease into that scene.

Aside from the DragonTat guy, there was a quiet guy who sat in the corner, and a shy-ish but interesting guy (the designated driver) with amazing blue eyes and a better wardrobe than DragonTat – a nice t-shirt under an open button down and some non-ratty jeans.  No glasses, short hair.

I think I fell a little bit in love with his sense of humor, his laugh, his eyes when he laughed – first. When they guys ordered beers, I checked their IDs. Well, they were military and I’d never seen a military ID, so I was having some trouble finding the birth date. I was about to give up, when DesignatedDriver (a.k.a. FutureHusband) told me to look on the back – he laughed and said that most waitresses just handed it back without finding it there, and they always had a good laugh about it.  I laughed too… but mostly because I’d nearly made a fool of myself the same way. Major almost-FAIL.

From that point on, FutureHusband and I had a nice parley going. We joked and laughed between courses, and I made sure that his Coke was never empty At the end of the meal, I dropped off the check and was hoping for a nice tip – FutureHusband looked up at me from the booth and asked “So, would you like to go see a musical venue sometime?”

Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make sense. But I was floored. No one had ever asked me out like that before. I was thrilled inside, but I hope that my “sure!” was casual, cool, and damn sexy. We exchanged phone numbers on Outback drink coasters (he had chicken-scratch handwriting, I noticed) and he vowed that he’d call me.

~ To Be Continued ~