If you could get past the ridiculous title, I swear this is legit the best love story in the whole world. Or in my world at least, since it’s the only one I have. I’m writing this so whenever my love life origin story is relevant on any of my blog posts, I can simply link to this page. Better than fragments or repeating myself.
Note that I wasn’t allowed to be in a relationship until after college and somehow I managed to do just that. And when I started working, it’s mostly the night shift that further narrowed down my opportunities to meet or get to know potential romantic partners.
My husband and I discovered each other on Yahoo! Messenger. He was 26 and I was 22 at the time. We were practically strangers, the only two things we started off with are our YM IDs and Friendster profiles. In hindsight, dating back then was dangerous as fuck. If you know, you know.
I remember having at least 15 other chat windows open when this guy messaged me with a question other than “A/S/L?”. It wasn’t a particularly unique inquiry but enough to get my attention. We added each other as contacts and started talking daily, which gradually led to us meeting in person.
He’s not the first guy I met online so I’d like to put emphasis on the fact that I was about to quit the whole YM chat and eyeball game at this point. I was 100% ready to take an indefinite break from seeing new people. Dating will always be exhausting for anyone and everyone. Why must we subject ourselves to this torture?
Anyway, I admittedly tried to delay our meetup because I felt like we should chat more and I’m so sleep deprived. I’d rather get some sleep than go out and be awkward. But he was adamant about seeing each other in person early on (probably to eliminate the possibility of getting catfished) so I reluctantly agreed to meet at a mall. I wore a collared shirt, jeans, and open-toe sandals – in other words, mall fashion He said we can only hang out until like 3 pm because he’s got grad school classes after.
Okay no problem, that works for me. I picked a waiting spot near the entrance, described my mall fashion to him, and that my nails were black. When he finally arrived, we sort of blank stared at each other briefly trying to make sure that we are who we think we are. This clown didn’t go straight to where I was sitting.
He pretended to walk past the bench until he’s out of my view. In my mind, I was like, look at this MF trying to be funny. After about 10 seconds he sat next to me with a huge grin on his face, and the first thing I noticed was his goddamn braces. He smiled so big, stainless steel blinded me, and I even saw part of his upper gums. 😂
I couldn’t help but smile too. It wasn’t love at first sight for either of us, I think. If I’m honest, I thought he looked kind of gay and I don’t mean that in a bad way. He doesn’t fit the stereotypical men with big dick energy that women are programmed to like, is what I’m trying to say. But from the get-go, we felt comfortable with each other.
After the initial greetings, he excused himself for a toilet break, and I even thought well is he about to ghost me or something. I’ve never experienced it but what if. Fortunately or unfortunately, he came back and suggested we grab a bite to eat at Wendy’s. I don’t recall what we ordered but I remember making fun of his shaky hands while eating a frosty.
Since he’s the one who initiated the meetup without clear plans, I wasn’t expecting bowling at our first meeting. But I have sandals on, I said. He’s like, we’re in a mall, let’s get you some socks. So he bought me a pair of socks at the department store and bowling commenced. Of course, I looked ridiculous having zero bowling experience. Turns out he’s confident with his bowling skills which explains the seemingly unplanned bowling session.
Time flew by and we had to part ways. We briefly lounged at the food court before saying goodbye. As I said, he had grad school to attend to and I chose to stay behind for some me-time. Strolling alone at the mall was a regular activity for me. And we just met so it didn’t make sense to show each other where we live. real love story
Did I have fun? Yes. Did I go out with another guy after this? Also yes. It’s not like we immediately became a couple after one date. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that my ‘feels’ for this stranger (now my husband) hit differently. Perhaps one of the best (and cheesiest) ways to describe it is he felt ‘like home’ to me. So we made it official and here we are.
I think this covers enough of how we became a part of each other’s lives so I’ll end it here and blog the rest. real love story