I'd been good friends (I thought) with this girl since I was in 10th grade and she in 8th. It had never been romantic, but I kept hoping. I'd been back from my mission for about 6 months; she was in her 2nd year at BYU. I'd paid enough recent attention to her that she had to know I was quite interested in her. I had a car, she didn't. One night she called me up and suggested we get tickets and go to a concert together. She actually wanted to spend an evening with me! Wow! We each bought our own ticket. This was my fatal mistake.

I was taking a heavy load that semester and had to bust my butt to free up a Thursday night, but I thought it was worth it for the awesome evening I was anticipating. I was stoked: Cool concert! Great girl! And she asked me! When I picked her up she came out with her school backpack, fully loaded. I made a mental list of things a girl would reasonably need for an evening like this: apartment key, ID, lipstick, feminine hygiene products... A small purse ought to be sufficient. I asked her about the backpack. She said she had a lot of studying to do. Oh great.

Driving up I-15 she had her textbook open on her lap. He lips were moving as she practiced conjugating German verbs. This was not going well. She was really into German. I thought I'd attempt some witty banter to draw her out of her book. Several miles went by. No witty banter came to mind. I plunged ahead with the only thing I could think of: "Well, it looks like you're studying hard these days..."

Apparently this touched some raw nerve. She shot back at me quite angrily, "Some of us have to work hard to get good grades you know!" I didn't bother explaining about the midnight oil I'd been burning all week to free up this evening. I don't remember much else about the drive to SLC, but I remained optimistic that once we got to the concert she'd have to put away the books and we'd have a good time together.

So we parked and walked to the concert venue. Waiting near the door were several friends of hers, none of whom I knew, including one guy she seemed especially glad to see and greeted with a warm hug. She gave me a little wave and took off with her friends as I stood there stupidly with my mouth open. Fortunately I found some friends who had come to the concert separately. I hung out with them and enjoyed the show as well as could be expected.

After the show she found me. Perky and cheerful as can be said, "I've got an early class tomorrow! We'd better get going!"

So I drove her home. I don't remember if we said much.

In retrospect I was looking at it as a date, but she just thought she was getting a ride to Salt Lake. The worst part was I thought, if nothing else, we were longstanding good friends.
Nope.

About a year later I got an invitation in the mail to her missionary farewell. She'd been called to Germany. I didn't go to the farewell.