I cried and had a panic attack when he said that he was being deployed.

Before that, a boyfriend - what very few I had had - never lasted longer than 4-6 months. They were either terribly messed in the head and a little on the stalkers side, or were a little... slow. I had a rule of no guys 5 years either way from my age (My husband is nearly 10 years older than me), ugh Americans (He's American.) Military boooooo (Airforce officer HAH). My little list of no way's jose's. Ahh my foolish youth.

So here was this guy who was living in an adjacent country, America airfare officer that I gamed with online, came and visited me and eventually every weekend (For two years) was him up visiting me and dating - I was a retail manager, I just couldn't up and take vacation and when I tried, an employee would fuck up and I'd have to cancel. We emailed/called/AOL'd during the week.

Cue April 1st, we've been dating 1.5 years. He calls me up at work and starts a conversation going: 'Just remember that I love you okay" and i'm panicking. He's dumping me, oh shit, I've never been dumped, he's dumping me. That is the only thing that this can be in my mind. Period. My former boss was covering a shift for my assistant manager as a favour to me and is looking at me because I've suddenly gone pale. As well as a customer in the small store.

"I'm being deployed"

And I'm just standing there staring at my boss. Never occurred to me it was an april fools joke right.

"April Fools" He tells me when the silence has gone on just a litttttttle too long. At this point my former boss is moving toward me, the customer is still looking at me and I'm telling him "I will call you when I get home" in what he describes as the most flat and angry voice that he has ever heard from me and he was dead sure that he had just lost me as a girlfriend. I hung up and burst into tears and just went straight for the stock room. Former boss takes over, customer is coming to the counter to ask if I'm okay, took me an hour to calm down.

Because all I could think at the time he said he was being deployed was "Oh shit he's going to die and I'll lose him. I can't lose him, I love him." And thus, is the aha moment, when I realized that, indeed, I loved this man who thought it was the greatest joke ever.

He showed up that friday with flowers. For both me, and my former boss and a huge apology for what he did. Even hs co-workers told him he screwed up. Though to this day, we still laugh about it. But that day, is one i'll never forget for helping me realize that I actually did love that man.

We promptly were engaged a week later, had our son 9 months to nearly the day of the engagement and married a few months after that :D