“I was standing outside Bank of America on Capitol Hill in Seattle with a skateboard and a 24-pack of Rainier under my arm, when a girl stopped and looked at me with the strangest eye. Her stare was playful, yet almost confrontational. Then just as suddenly as she’d stopped, she passed by with her roommate following closely behind. I looked to my friend to see if he saw what I saw. He did in fact see what I had seen. I couldn’t believe it because I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on, and I couldn’t possible understand why she’d stop to look at me so strangely. So I did what I would usually never do: I followed her.

She was aware we were following them, and began slowing down to study the concert posters on the streetlights. When we caught up to them I was absolutely terrified but I invited her and her friend to the house party where we were headed. Her friend wasn’t having it and urged her to keep walking. I saw Mandy thinking about it but eventually she decided to go with her friend. We kept walking down the hill and I kept looking back, debating whether or not I should run back up and give her my phone number. I ended up deciding against it because I was already mortified with myself for following her. I remember consoling my cowardice, thinking, “Hey, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. Chalk it up to fate. You’ll see her again one day.” And in that moment, in a city that felt so enormous to me, I focused really hard and hoped with my whole being that it would one day come true.

About two weeks later I received a MySpace message. It read, “Can you be found in front of Bank of America with a 24-pack and skateboard in your hand?” I couldn’t believe it! How did she find me? (It turns out we went to the same college and she found me through a mutual friend’s “Top 8”).

By this time she had gone back home for must of the summer and I couldn’t see her until school started up again in Fall. I called every other day and we got to know each other, mostly while she drove to work at Multnomah Falls, and while I paced in circles above the QFC parking lot.

After Summer had passed and she’d returned to Seattle, I took her out on a date. She was terribly shy and hardly spoke a word. I was super nervous and couldn’t stop talking. I walked her home and we stood out front for several minutes. Eventually, I shut up and kissed her. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to keep kissing me so I said, “It’s okay if you don’t want to kiss me, I hope you know that.” She said, “Oh no, I know that, and I do.”