Our Cinderella Love Story (or, How I Found My Prince Charming With A Dirty Old Rubber Flip-Flop Instead of a Glass Slipper)

In honor of our approaching 8 year wedding anniversary on Monday, I wanted to share how it all began...

Ricky and I met by chance the spring before I graduated. After ending a serious relationship prior to my senior year in college, I was single, carefree and loving every minute of those last few months of freedom before reality strikes and you are officially thrown out into the world.

A group of girlfriends and I planned a trip to Miami for spring break. We packed suitcases of carefully planned outfits to hit the town in and looked forward to sipping fruity drinks and people watching on the soft-sand beaches of one of the hottest vacation spots around.

We had a blast -- too much fun some might say. {My parents were totally shocked to see a shiny little stud adorning my nose when I returned from the trip. Yep, I got my nose pierced. And I loved it.} About halfway through the trip, a few of my friends said they wanted to drive over to Daytona - about 4 hours away - to meet up with their boyfriends who were there with our school's tennis team. Most of the group had boyfriends, but one of my friend's who didn't said she knew of a few guy friends that were in Daytona too that we could hang out with so she and I decided to tag along. It turned out that I knew one from a mutual group of friends and she knew the other, a guy named Ricky, who she kind of had a crush on. How fun!

When we got to the hotel where the guys were staying we were a hot mess. We rented a car early one morning after a particularly fun night and let's just say we were not in any shape to get up and shower for a 4 hour car-ride. Had I known I was about to meet the man I was going to marry, perhaps I would have made a bit more of an effort ;)

I knew my friend had a crush on this Ricky guy so I had told myself ahead of time that even if I ended up thinking he was cute, I was not going to get in her way, as any good friend would do. Unfortunately for me, I did find him attractive. And funny. And sweet. But, nope, wasn't going to flirt at all. This was her crush. We hung out all day, walked up and down the beach, played cards outside on the hotel deck and the 4 of us had a wonderful time.

Later on, we went to a nightclub where I brushed off some of Ricky's innocent flirting so as not to upset my friend (although I could tell there was no "connection" between her and him). As we were shuttled back to our hotel in a large passenger van, Ricky and I ended up seated next to each other. We were all exhausted and squished in the van with about 8 or 9 other people headed to various locations and his hand gently rested on my leg - nothing more than an accident.

Suddenly, drama erupted. Once back at our hotel, my friend stormed off the van and took off down the beach in a tizzy. One of the guys went after her to find out what she was upset about. She eventually came back, shouting about how I was a bad friend and that I knew she had a crush on Ricky but I just didn't seem to care. Huh??? I just had to laugh and thought, is she serious right now??? It kind of went downhill from there. The combination of emotions and alcohol inevitably had us both in tears. Ricky pulled me aside to ask me politely what in the world was going on.

"I guess she thinks (sob sob sob) she thinks (sob) I might like you or something (sob sob sob)."

No matter how flattered he might have been about what seemed to be two girls "fighting" over him, the drama that marked the end of our stay there probably made him wish we would both just head back to Miami as quickly as we came.

The next morning, my friend and I never really discussed it the entire drive back. I think we were both embarrassed. When we arrived back to our hotel in Miami, I realized I left a pair of flip-flops back in Daytona. I got Ricky's number from my friend (which I'm sure she was not thrilled about giving me) and asked him to bring them back to Louisville with him.

I guess you could liken it to Cinderella's glass slipper (except in this case it was a dirty old pair of rubber flip-flops). We met up in a parking lot on campus the following week and much to my surprise, when he returned my shoes, he asked for my number.