All because one person was comfortable with profanity

Zach asked me out on our first date exactly four years ago. At the time I wasn't even sure of his name.

Supposedly we actually had two classes together in my first few years at BYU, but we didn't really meet until we were both members and officers in the BYU Democrats. I had started getting involved the past fall semester, while he was living in Germany. I was comfy with the group dynamic, and then all of a sudden there was this weird new guy who started coming and talking like he belonged. Which, having been involved for years, he did, but I didn't know that. I was just kind of annoyed by him. He had apparently noticed me a little more favorably than I noticed him, and more importantly, he thought he had noticed one of the other guys noticing me and felt the need to step things up. If I was more into economics I'd say something clever about scarcity or supply and demand or something. But I'm not, so I won't. Point is, he finally decided to do more than just hang out and get somewhat annoyed looks from me.

For one of our Dem meetings, we were pretty much just hanging out and writing letters to various legislative people. Zach sat next to me and quickly struck up a conversation. I wasn't particularly thrilled. Having purposely chosen my seat because it was near the club's official hot guy, being obligated to talk to the guy I didn't really know but was vaguely annoyed by was a little frustrating. But he kept talking to me, I kept replying, and before I knew it we had spent an hour chatting away. It was almost fun. The meeting ended, but we kept right on talking as he walked home with me (I thought it was on his way home, it was actually the exact opposite direction from his apartment). Even with all the easy flowing conversation, I still didn't have any interest in him. I was having fun, but the idea of this guy as a possible romance hadn't really crossed my mind.

And then, in the middle of chatting away on my doorstep, he swore. And hot damn, I swear I had to fight to keep myself from falling into a classic old movie swoon. Those four little letters were just about the sexiest thing I'd ever heard. Just a little thing, a damn or a hell, but nothing but a handful of awkward first dates and flirtations with some very nice but painfully bland guys, and me generally feeling like I didn't fit in, that one little word turned him from some random guy, into a person of interest.

Anyone whose ever met Zach would laugh at the idea of him being considered a "bad boy". But this was BYU and that one little word may as well have been . It was damn sexy and all of a sudden he wasn't some random guy who was kind of fun to talk to, he was a free thinking rebel who I wanted to push against the wall and have my way with (I was also not a sweet little BYU girl). So when he suggested getting together and watching a movie on Friday, I was all over it.

And that's the story about how swearing led to my marriage.