Define the relationship

By the time fall semester started, no one was asking anymore if we were cousins.

Each day we spent as much time together as possible. After classes were done we'd walk partway home together. Sometimes we'd walk together to one of our apartments, but other days we would part at the corner of 600 East and 700 North, giving a brief but affectionate hug and kiss before temporarily parting to eat our own dinners. (When we found out that our farewells had an audience in the house at that corner, Kevin and I were sure to give a hearty handshake the next time, marching opposite directions as the girls in the house laughed and cheered.)

It was new and wonderful to be in love, but I still had some nagging doubts. Was Kevin getting tired of me? I asked him about it and he looked at me as if I was crazy. I had dragged him on a family outing that got us on the mountain next to Mount Timpanogos. I had him come along with me as the lone guy to a girls' outing at Olive Garden. He listened to me talk and talk and talk. He wasn't doing this just to be nice.

"We've never had an official DTR," I said. "Maybe we should have one."

"I was thinking that too," he responded. "How about tomorrow?"

I could barely sleep that night for excitement. The next day -- September 17, 2009, would be one to remember. The following afternoon we decided to go on a walk to talk. (He had figured out by then that when he asked "left, right, or straight?" and I said "straight," I was just referring to the direction I had started walking, even if it was left or right.)

"What do you see in our future in five years?" he asked.

"Apple trees," I said without skipping a beat.

"Apple trees?"

"Yes. And a big white house, and kids playing. What about you?"

"Sure, I guess we can have apple trees."

So we talked about marriage that night. It wasn't official yet, and we still had the biggest test of our relationship soon to come -- a miniature golf date when I had a sore throat. But we survived that (and haven't been mini golfing since) and have been creating our lives together ever since.

We're a bit behind, of course. It's been ten years, and we still don't have apple trees.

But I bet we will soon.