Charissa’s Story:

One night in December of 2007 I was hanging out with a couple of friends. My friends’ car needed to have a part replaced, so we went to fix it with her. She had left it at her old roommates’ boyfriend’s house. It was dark, raining/snowing, and definitely not the time to be fixing a car. We had been using my phone as a flashlight when it fell down the engine of the car.  After several unsuccessful attempts at getting the phone out, the boyfriend showed up with a couple of his friends. One of the friends rescued my phone. Haha…I know what you’re thinking, No this was not Dustin. The boyfriend asked us if we would like to go with them to the party they had just come from. We almost declined, but decided to go and wash up a little since we had gotten dirty trying to reclaim the phone.

After being at the party for a little while my friend spotted Dustin. She had told me about him before, and that he had served a mission in Spain. I was just about to leave for a semester abroad in Spain, so I was interested in meeting him. I walked across the dance floor into the kitchen where he was standing and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around somewhat surprised, and I introduced myself. We talked for a couple of minutes, him being kind of awkward, then he left quickly after one of his friends came up to him and grabbed him. I thought it was pretty rude, but found him very intriguing.

The next time I saw Dustin was at a movie at the house of the boyfriend mentioned above. This guy was also a friend of Dustin’s. We watched the movie “The Guardian.” After the movie Dustin volunteered to take us home since we needed a ride. Dustin asked us why we didn’t hang out with them more often, and if we’d want to get together if he called sometime. He then asked my friend (who was in the front seat) to put her number in his phone. I didn’t know that he had also asked her to put my number in his phone. After he left we both got a text from him reading “sweet dreams.” My friend thought that he would ask me out. I figured he might

He made me wait a couple of weeks before he called me. He took me to a Utah Flash game, then out to ice cream where we met up with some of his friends. Awkward? Yes. After ice cream we went to Dustin’s friend’s house to watch a movie. While watching the movie we started holding hands and the cuddling began. I started to like this guy more and more.

I saw him twice more (if I can remember right) before I went home for Christmas. He took me to get some hot chocolate and came to say goodbye before I left. It was a weird goodbye. We were interested in each other but knew that it couldn’t go anywhere since I was leaving the country.

While in Spain for 4 months I thought about Dustin at times. If anyone asked me about boys back home, I would tell them that there was one guy I met before I left that I was interested in and hoped to see when I went back to Utah. I met Dustin’s mission president and his wife in Spain and asked about him. They said he was a very good missionary

After returning from Spain I worked in Newport for the summer. The only contact I had with Dustin was through Facebook and Facebook chat. We chatted a couple of times, and he would send me links for songs and music videos he liked. I was never really sure if he was interested in me. He was very hard to read.

The first time I saw Dustin since returning from Spain was in June of 2008. We had a family reunion in Orem, and Dustin wanted to see me while I was in town. He made ME call HIM when I got there. I found this annoying and strange. Why should I call him? He was the man wasn’t he? I got up my courage and called him while my family and I were at a park. He called me back a little while later and asked me to go to the driving range with him. To be totally honest (and yes I know this makes me sound stupid) I had no idea what a “driving range” was. I thought we were going to go drive cars or something, which was weird, but I was so eager to see him that it didn’t really matter.

The date ended up being a little bit different than I exected. Okay, A LOT different than I expected. I was with a couple of friends, one that I hadn’t seen in a long time, and one of them thought that I shouldn’t be hanging out with Dustin since we didn’t get to see this friend very often. I won’t’ name names to save embarrassment for the individuals. They invited themselves on our date!! Dustin told them to come with us if they wouldn’t let me go alone. He must have really wanted to see me All four of us went to the driving range, then to get frozen yogurt. It was fun despite the fact that there were two extra people that were not wanted there.

When I went home Dustin stopped talking to me online, which I thought was weird since we had a great night of flirting in June. I was kind of sad, and thought that maybe he wasn’t interested anymore.

The first time I saw Dustin after returning to school at BYU he took me on a drive to do some business deals.  He was selling a phone to some guys, and visiting his cousin who had a TV she wanted to get rid of. I was annoyed that he thought this was a good time to “catch up.” He barely wanted to talk about Spain, which really was the only topic we had in common. He was hard to talk to at all. After seeing him that night I was annoyed with him, but still intrigued.

He didn’t call me again for a month…the nerve. He called me to go on a double date with a friend of his. MOST AWKWARD/ BAD DATE OF MY LIFE. He barely talked to me, was mostly interested in what his friend and his date had to say, and the movie we went to afterward (Batman) was just as awkward. How could this be happening? We used to connect!! What I didn’t know at the time was that his friend was trying to make his girlfriend jealous by taking another girl out. He asked Dustin to find a date as well so it wouldn’t be so awkward for him. Thus the reason I was pretty much ignored.

After that date I was still somewhat interested (don’t ask how or why). I thought it was over when he didn’t call again. I did call him once to ask him a question about something…where to buy computer ink since I needed to get more. I knew he worked with computers, so I thought he might know a place to find it cheap. He acted like I was weird for calling him, and didn’t provide any help. After this I thought it was over. I had started somewhat dating another guy, but I wasn’t interested in him like I was in Dustin. I was sad for a little bit, but got over it pretty fast.

One day while in my apartment, my phone rang and Dustin’s name showed up on the caller ID. I sat there and looked at the phone, wondering if I could deal with this guy AGAIN. He was rude, and did so many things that bugged me. Why did I say yes when he asked me out again? I still had a thing for him…crazy…but he was hard to shake.

He took me to a Matt Nathanson concert in Salt Lake with a couple of friends and their girlfriends. It was awkward at first, but once he put his arms around me I melted. I LOVED having his arms around me. After the concert we went to eat at a little fast food type Mexican place. It was still hard to talk to him, but at least the physicalness had broken some ice.

The next day, which was a Sunday, Leah and I ended up at the boyfriend’s house to play games. Dustin was brought up in the conversation somehow. They started talking about Dustin’s old girlfriend, how he still had a thing for her and how he dated a ton of girls. They said he had been on a date the night before he took me out. I started to become very uncomfortable, and felt taken advantage of. I remember one of his friends saying that to get Dustin a girl needed to throw him up against a wall and kiss him. This I was not willing to do anytime soon after learning more about him.

Earlier that same day Dustin had asked me over to his apartment to play games and eat pazookies, which I later found out were half baked cookies with ice cream. I made Leah go with me after being at the boyfriend’s house, and the party had already ended. It was weird for me to be there since I felt so taken advantage of and was uncomfortable after what I had heard about him and all his women. I later found out that he noticed that I was acting very strange.

The next day (Monday) I was surprised when he called me again. I was used to hearing from this guy like once a month….punk. I had just ditched out on FHE to go practice singing for my voice lessons when Dustin called and asked me to go to a concert where his friend was playing music. I abandoned my practice and went back to my apartment to get ready. The only problem was that my FHE group was there, and had just seen me leaving to go practice. I walked back into my apartment to confused looks. The only thing I could think to say was “change of plans.” My roommate walked into my room and asked me what going on. I was hoping/praying that Dustin wouldn’t come to the door since the guy that I had been sort of dating was in my FHE group. I didn’t want to hurt him by seeing me with another guy. Yep, he did it, he came to the door. Everyone was very confused now, and my roommate saved me by telling the group that he was an old friend of mine.

That problem behind me I was with Dustin again, but still feeling somewhat concerned about what I had heard earlier. I didn’t want to get hurt since I was starting to really like him. At the concert my barriers started to tear down. We had a good time together, and I found it easier to talk to him. After the concert Dustin asked me if I wanted to go to get ice cream or go to his thinking spot. Not being hungry, and being intrigued by his “thinking spot” I choose the latter choice. He drove me up to a cliff overlooking the city at night. The view was beautiful! He put on some Spanish music and was asking if I understood the lyrics. During one of the songs “Te Regalo” by Baute, he got this really weird look on his face, and then leaned in to kiss me. It was an amazing kiss and an amazing atmosphere!

After the kiss he asked me where I wanted to go. I took him to “the spider web” in the park that my old roomies and I would often go to. We talked and told stories of when we were young. When he took me home I knew that I wanted this one to stay around. I just couldn’t let him get away AGAIN.

Tuesday night we stayed up talking for hours. I don’t think he went home until 2:30 am. Breaking the honor code was necessary in this case I told him of my concerns about him leaving again, and told him that if he didn’t want to stay that I needed to know. I just couldn’t take it if he disappeared for a month again. He told me that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Thus started our dating relationship.

It took awhile for Dustin to open up to me. He was hard to talk to, hard to read, wouldn’t open up to me, and did things that often bugged me. I still liked him despite all of those things. I was starting to wonder what was wrong with me! This lasted for months, and I was starting to have doubts about our relationship. I was nagging him for not opening up and being more committed, and he was sick of the nagging. Our relationship almost ended one night. Boy am I glad that Dustin didn’t say what he was thinking, that we should take a break.

It didn’t take long before I realized I was expecting too much of him. I wrote him a letter, and sent him some sweet pea scented soap from Bath and Body Works (yes this is something he really wanted). This is where I remember things starting to go uphill.

On March 8, exactly 4 months after the Matt Nathanson concert (November 8), we told each other that we loved each other. As the weeks went by we fell more and more in love. We talked of marriage, and decided that we wanted to be together forever.

I can remember the first time we went ring shopping. It was actually on a Saturday after General Conference (if I can remember right). I had to beg him to go. He dreaded the day we would go ring shopping since he knew that it would be one of the most boring, long shopping trips that he would ever go on. We went shopping a few times, and I found a few different rings that I liked. I left the ring buying up to him since I wanted it to be a surprise.

I had to wait awhile for my ring. I was very anxious to get it since I knew we were getting married, but Dustin seemed in no hurry to give it to me. This frustrated me. Little did I know that he would propose in the place where I wanted him to do it the most. He came to Newport when I was visiting there after my semester in April. He had the proposal all planned out. He checked the weather to know which night would be the best, and recruited my sister Christy to take pictures. The night of the proposal he took me on a walk to the beach. We walked around for awhile enjoying ourselves, and then he told me he wanted to look for shells. I told him that it was a rare thing to find an intact shell on this beach. As we continued looking we found a ton of shells all in the same area. As we were picking up shells Dustin asked me if I had thought I had found the best one. I showed him a couple I thought were really pretty, and he proceeded to tell me that he had one that was better and asked if I wanted to see it. It took him a couple of times of asking me to see the shell and me saying “yes” for him to actually show it to me. It was around this time that I felt his heart racing as we hugged. He gave me the shell and told me to open it. I had him open it since it was stuck together (being glued) and he showed me the ring, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his forever. I of course said yes and couldn’t stop hugging him. I did know what was going on the entire time, including seeing my sister Christy hiding in the bushes taking pictures, but I played along. It was a beautiful night with a beautiful sunset. Dustin did an amazing job

After the engagement it was all wedding plans, and then the wedding. I often think back on our dating experience and get all giddy again. Dustin continues to amaze me with his sexiness, loving nature, and way of always making me laugh