The Day We Met

 <<<<<<<(Kenna in her floaty)     

       

              Brandon has been gone for almost 2 weeks now and it's Mother's Day. I took Makenna to the public indoor swimming pool so she could us the floaty that we got her for Easter. It was my first Mother's Day and I wished I could of had my husband there to celebrate with us. I had Makenna and she and I had a very special day together, just the two of us, and I will never forget. It was perfect even though I missed Brandon so much!   

              Let me tell you about the day I met Brandon Michael Hetherton. He lived across the hall from me in the barracks. He always tried to see who the new Soldier was, because I had just arrived to the unit, that week. But I didn’t know anyone. So, I would go from the bathroom, to my room, close the door, and sit there with myself. Yeah, I was kind of a loser. But in my defense, everyone was working and not really introducing themselves to me quite yet. But this really strange girl lived across the hall from me too, next to Brandon, and she started talking to me on a Friday night, November 13, 2009. She asked me if I wanted to go to the bar, because even though I was only 19 at the time, 18 was the legal drinking age in Germany. So I agreed to come along so I could at least meet some people so I would be less of a loser. So she was like “Let me go ask CPL Hetherton, since we are all hanging out with him.” Then I thought, “Oh, ok, that’s cool, who is this guy?” Then she introduced us. He and about 4 other guys were in his room playing guitar hero or rock band. They’re the same in my eyes. He said hey and started asking me where I’m from and stuff and asking me why I was so shy. Now as PFC (private first class) in the Army, I would need to stand at parade rest, and say corporal at the end of everything I say to him, so people like that, higher ranking, I tended to avoid. But I didn’t tell him that. I said “I don’t know.”

               Then we continued to talk. He was just being nice; I don’t think he was flirting at this point. Then the same girl that had introduced us apparently had a big crush on him, even though she was married at the time, and was feeding me all these lies about how they were together, but keeping it a secret and what not. So, me being knew, and not really knowing any better, went along with it and kind of stayed away from CPL Hetherton, which was really hard.   

(Brandon's Amazing Eyes!)

               I remember thinking how cute he was. He was 6’4’’ <and about 210 pounds, so amazing! He has these dreamy eyes <too. That’s an old school way of describing them, but they are so <bright and beautiful and big! That was really the first thing I <noticed on top of having these long eye lashes that any woman, including myself, could be jealous of!  One thing that was a turn off though, was his clothes! He had the worst taste in style ever! I am not saying I am the most stylish person in the world, but I like to say I dress nicely, when I’m not lounging around house in sexy sweats, and over sized t-shirts, with my hair slicked back into a bun on top of my head! But at this point, Brandon didn’t know that, he only seen the girl that was dressing to impress! Anyways, back to his terrible clothes! He had on a black t-shirt, plain, which would have been fine had it actually fit him. Brandon is not a fat, or even that chubby of a guy. He was very tall and he wasn’t super skinny, but he wasn’t that chubby either, (hard to explain) but he was wearing a shirt that was WAY too small for him. I remember exactly what he said when he put on the shirt and asked everyone in the room if he looked all right, he said he liked the shirt because “it makes my muscles look big”. Which was a lye by the way, it just looked too small, but what do I know, he just met me so I wasn’t about to tell him he looked ridiculous. Even better than the shirt was his pants, the blue jean pants with bright orange dragons on the sides of them! Hideous! They are uglier than I could ever describe in words! He also wore these black steel toe boots, which again, would not have been bad; except they looked older than me! He really needed new ones, and to this day, a year and 7 months later, he still has these worn out boots! But I complain when he wears them, so he said last winter will be the last winter he will wear them and he will break down and buy a new pair! Thank goodness!!!

               So after pre-gaming (drinking at the barracks first) we went to the bar. The first bar we went to was called the Gazebos. It was a pretty chill bar, with a pool table and a lot of Americans go to this bar, so it wasn’t like I was going to go to a place where the only language you heard was German. We got a table and all sat down. I sat next to Brandon and he continued to talk to me. The girl that introduced us, and had a big crush on him, sat next to me. She kept pulling me aside saying she wanted to sit next to him, but every time I tried to let her, he moved away and closer to me. He was flirting at this point, and I was WAY flirting back! I don’t really remember what exact topics we were discussing, but we were getting to know each other pretty well. He also told me that he had a son that was, at the time, 7 years old.

                                                                                    (Brandon with his son, Chance!)

               I knew he had son because from the girl that introduced us, Sam, she told me. I don’t mind dating someone with a kid. These days, who doesn’t have children from past relationships, and Brandon was 25 years old too, so he was a little bit older, so it’s kind of expected almost.

               I told him that it’s pretty cool, and then we moved on to a new topic. One thing I learned watching many many movies, is that you don’t really want to tell your new prospective person you love kids because that might scare them away. So I didn’t tell him, but I do love children and I always had. I’ve been babysitting and loving on my nephews since before I could even remember. So needless to say, it didn’t bother me.

(Shortly after we started dating)

               So back to Gazebos. After getting tired of being there and tired of Sam, some of us ditched her and went to the Irish Pub. Now that was a busy kind of bar. It was wall to wall packed! It was hard to breathe in there. Mr. Sly Guy Brandon thought he was “protecting” me from other guys touching me, and grabbed my waist and kind of held me against him a little bit, not tight, but enough to know he wanted me there.  We left that place because there were no tables or even chairs at the bar available, and decided to go back to the barracks on post. Till this day, I can’t remember the movie we were going to watch, but if you ask Brandon he knows. I ask   and ask all the time, but I always forget. I’ll ask the next time he calls.