There he was, light brown eyes, dark brown hair. How could someone be so perfect? Like, can he not? Oh dear, I guess he felt someone staring at him because he looked up, right at me and smiled. This was it. This was the moment that started everything.
So, growing up, I was never really the type of girl that guys liked. I dealt with it, I mean, whatever, right? I was kind of ugly, I had acne, and my body was never quite the “right size.” But again, whatever. His name was Diego; we worked together. When I first started at Journey’s, he was the one that caught my eye, not the pretty white boy or the cute, tall guy, but the shy, handsome Hispanic.  He was so handsome. I could not take my eyes off of him. I often found myself staring at him randomly at work. We were never formally introduced to each other but we were always scheduled together so we were forced to speak to each other. At first, I couldn’t even look him in the eye. But then we started getting more comfortable with each other and he started talking to me about his life and whatever was going on with his family. He was my best friend. I think he knew that I was basically in love with him but I don’t think he cared. Well, I think he cared that I liked him but I don’t think he minded it.
As summer came around, we were closer than ever. He would buy me food and make me go with him to his football practices. Everyone at work always teased me and made fun of me because they knew I liked him. But, then one day, I guess I realized that our relationship was never going to be anything more, so I just kind of stopped liking him in that way. We were still best friends but there was obviously something different.
There was a week during the summer that my old car had broken down so it was in the shop. Diego so graciously offered to pick me up and drop me off from work since we had the same schedule. The only reason he agreed to be my personal chauffeur for the week was because I promised to buy him food. That week was the most stressful week of my life. We fought on Monday because I was telling him about a boy I liked at church. He said that the guy sounded like and probably was a jerk. I got mad and started yelling at him like what did he know, right? Turns out he did know. Turns out he was right. That guy was a jerk. On Friday, he realized something was upsetting me so, after work, instead of taking me home, he took me to his house. We just sat in his car and he listened to me recount what happened the night before with the boy. I expected him to say “I told you so” but I was surprised when he didn’t. He just held me and told me that I deserved better. That was the first night we kissed.
I loved every bit of our relationship. We fought, we made up, it was like a Katy Perry song. We loved each other so when he decided that he should follow in the footsteps of his brother, Richard, by going into the army, I wholeheartedly supported his decision. He was my hero. He’s your hero. I don’t know why you love this story so much. We don’t see each other often and you are so busy with your career that you don’t have the time to call me, so I decided to type this up for you so that you remember your father for the great man that he was. I know you know this but, your father loved you. He fought and died so that you can have the amazing life you have.