More of our story...

Zach and I were only friends for a long time. That suddenly changed after a Christmas party in 2005 when he kissed me. I had had just enough wine at the party to blur the friendship line and remove whatever hesitations I would have had in crossing it, and I'm sure the same thing could be said for him, in that I don't think he would have been bold enough to make a move if he had been 100% sober.

After that kiss, we started spending more and more together time without other friends, and started dating. I lived about 45 minutes from him, and he would come up and see me during the week, and I would go back to our hometown to see him on the weekend. Somehow, though, things just weren't quite right. I knew that he loved me (though he hadn't told me that), but I still couldn't promote him past the "friend" label. I started to distance myself from him, spending less time with him, and practically avoiding him at times because I knew that I needed to end the romantic relationship and was afraid of hurting the friendship we'd had for so many years.

Zach is very insightful, and probably the most insightful man that I know. He could see that I wasn't acting normally, and he finally confronted me. I told him how I felt and that I didn't think we should date anymore. He was very upset, but he told me that he would always be there for me just as he had been until that point. We spent less and less time together, though I tried to see him every time I went back to our hometown. He sent me a card that said he had always told everyone else, but had somehow never managed to tell me that he loved me. That was the first time he told me that he loved me, and it broke my heart that I couldn't tell him I felt the same kind of love for him.

The two years after we broke up were filled with casual visits, old routines, and conversations here and there as friends. He was always there for me if I needed him, and he never let me forget that.

The year 2008 changed everything....