A Real-Life Catholic Love Story - Part 6 of 13 - Time for a Change

Part 1 - Life Before Love 
Part 2 - When Thomas Met Genevieve 
Part 3 - Thomas Falls in Love 
Part 4 - God makes Genevieve Some Promises
Part 5 - Two Years Pass

Part 6: Time for a Change

In December 2016, Genevieve and Thomas both returned to the base. 

Thomas was almost ready to make a move, but not quite. His spiritual director encouraged him to do something, but he still didn’t think it was the right time, partly because he had just said a 30 day novena to Saint Joseph and he didn’t send any kind of sign. Thomas was frustrated, because the desire still burned in his heart, but he was still too afraid of making mistakes. The Lord had to stir up that desire.

The previous year Thomas had talked to another volunteer, JP,  about the situation, but received no clear guidance. But as he returned to the base, it seemed like many people from the community encouraged him.

One night Thomas was talking to his roommate, and he shared with him for the first time that he liked Genevieve. He told him, “You’ve got to do something about that.” The next morning Thomas woke up and said to himself, “I’m going to ask her out!” By the middle of the day, his courage and confidence waned. “I’m not going to ask her out.” 

That night at the dinner after the community celebration Mass, Thomas was holding open a door when S, JP’s wife, walked in and said meaningfully to him, “Now is the acceptable time.” 

Thomas had never told S anything about his feelings, so clearly JP had shared with her. Thomas played dumb. “What are you talking about?” 

She said, “You know,” and walked away. 

Later that night she came over to him again and said, “Genevieve really deserves a good man. And you deserve a good woman. You don’t want somebody else to get a chance before you.” 

Her words lit a fire under him, because about a month earlier when they had met in India, Genevieve had told Thomas about a Filipino guy whom she was interested in. It was the first time Thomas had heard about Genevieve liking someone, and it cast his hopes down.  He had told God, “I’m just going to let this go.” But as he prayed about it, the desire to be with her was fanned into flame. So when S spoke up, Thomas knew that he didn’t want the other guy to get a chance. 

As he considered her words, S added, “It only takes twenty seconds of insane courage.” 

Thomas took a deep breath. “It’s now or never.” He walked over to Genevieve that night, at the first chance he caught her alone. 

“Genevieve, can we talk for a second?” 

“Yeah, I got lots of seconds.” 

As he was getting ready to speak up, he got slightly dizzy. Then he said, “I would like to take you out on a date.”

Genevieve was shocked. Her legs went numb. She was taken completely off guard, because it was the last thing she thought he would say.

But she immediately blurted out, “Yes!” 

Why? Well, she didn’t like awkward situations, she was an impulsive answerer, who didn’t always think before she spoke. But there was another reason.  A few weeks before she had made a decision— “If a man is going to work up the courage to ask me out on a date, I’ll say yes. I don’t care who it is. Well, as long as he isn’t a bum on the streets.” She had been thinking about returning to the base, and wondering if something would happen.

When it did happen, Genevieve’s heart jumped at the thought of Thomas asking her out on a date, that someone would ask her out on a date. Earlier in the night he had told her she looked beautiful. She felt beautiful when he said that, because she had forgotten for a while in the Philippines that she was truly beautiful. 

So she said, “Yes!” 

Thomas wasn’t ready for such a quick answer. “You can think about it, you know.”

But she repeated, “No! I already answered ‘Yes’.” 

Then she said, “Can we sit down?”, because her legs had gone weak.

They sat down on a bench in the hallway, 

He said, “Okay. When?”

“When are you going home?”

“The 14th.”

“Oh, then we have plenty of time.”

Thomas gave her a look. “Let’s not do that.” 

Genevieve was impressed, because she had not thought of Thomas as someone who was persistent or direct. So she got out her phone, looked at the calendar and said, “I can do Saturday night.”

He said “Okay, good. What do you want to do?” Then he said. “Wait. Never mind. I’ll figure that out.” Again, she was impressed because she didn’t expect him to handle things in that way. 

Now that the official business was completed, they just said, “Okay,” and walked away from each other, back to the party. Genevieve grabbed her sister Teresa, brought her straight into the bathroom, made sure there was nobody else in there, and said, “GUESS WHO JUST ASKED ME OUT ON A DATE?” 

She said, “Who?” Perhaps she guessed, but Genevieve said, “THOMAS!” 

She said, “What?” But then she said “I remember JP mentioning somebody likes you.” Apparently he was in the office one day and told her, “I know somebody who likes your sister!” But she never mentioned it to Genevieve. But she told her, “You should talk to JP and S, I feel like they’d be able to help you out.”

They went back in, and the party was still going on, but Genevieve was so nervous, she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t dance, she couldn’t even look at him. 

Thomas was watching her after that, seeing how she was relating to people. Instead of heading home, they landed up at an after party at the one of the volunteer family’s homes. They sat almost next to each other, and drank their beers, but kept stealing glances at each other. It was the beginning, awkward, nervous stage of their relationship.

Next - Part 7 - The Pre-Date Date