I shared with you my side of things... everything from our first date to the friend zone, but what I left out was Josh's side of things. What he thought about our first kiss and how he took the news that I just wanted to be friends. I thought it would be important to include both sides of the story.

So I asked him to help me out and we decided to give you just that: Josh's side of the story...


"Did you kiss her?" asked my brother Matt excitedly.

*laughing*

"Yep! And It was grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!" I couldn't keep in my excitement as my eyes rolled back in my head remembering just how great the date had been.

Upstairs my grandpa continued the questions. "How was the date with WHIT?!?" I told him it had been amazing. He was shocked that I had been on two amazing dates now with a girl as cute and talented as Whitney.

Then he said it, the phrase that would turn out to be all too true: "With a girl like that I'm afraid, Josh, that you'll have plenty of competition!" Of course, I knew this was probably true, but after the last two dates and that Kiss of kisses I just laughed it off. I was ready for the competition, or at least I thought so...

That week things began to change. Text messages were exchanged. Sort of. Our conversations felt empty. Hollow. I WAS SO CONFUSED!!! Why did it feel like I was texting someone completely different than I had been dating??

A third fun date with no DTR left me even more confused than before. I received a late night text from Whitney. I was in bed. I knew as I rolled over that if I picked up my phone whether it was really good or really bad I would get no sleep that night. I did not want to look at that phone.

The anticipation was killing me. I read the text.

My heart dropped.

I was right. No sleep.

That was it. There was no way I was going to be with this girl. It was clear in my mind that she was interested in someone else or at the very least just not interested in me. She gave me the whole "I just don't feel ready for a relationship at this point." And "I would still love to be friends, but nothing more." But I just knew (or rather, I thought I knew) that those words translated to "I don't really want to date you."

However, instead of reacting with emotion that night I decided to thank her for the text- finally having some sort of definition for our relationship- and told her we would be fine to go on our last planned date as just friends.

I had bought tickets weeks prior to a concert in Salt Lake City of a band we both like. I was not nearly as excited for this date as I had been for the previous dates, but I went prepared.

I was determined going into this date that I was NOT going to be pathetic. Of course, I still had some feelings for this girl, but I decided days before this date that if she wanted to be friends I was going to be the best friend she had ever had! My plan? No holding hands, no flirting, and certainly no kissing!

When the date started, my thinking and rethinking started.

We started the drive in the middle of rush hour from Provo to Salt Lake, but we were prepared and left with plenty of time to spare. "I like this a lot."

With all of the extra time, we took a small drive through my hometown in West Valley City. I showed her my high school, my church, my old home. "I could be her friend! We could make this work!"

She made lots of jokes. I laughed.

I made lots of jokes. SHE laughed! "Ok, the friend zone might not work for me."

Eventually, we made it to the concert. We found our seats and shortly after the music began, her hand also began...to move towards mine. "What is going on?!?"

To be continued...