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We happened to be on the same flight and I was running late (as usual). As we walked down the jetway not knowing each other, Deb commented on how early this flight was. I was a little bummed about how late I arrived at the airport and how the airline made me check my bags, so my only reply to Deb was a grumpy groan. When I finally got to my seat, however, I realized that I missed a perfect opportunity to be engaging (no pun intended) with Deb and stewed throughout the flight. When we landed, Deb was nowhere in sight. Something else was also nowhere in sight...the bags. Our bags were delayed over an hour. Halfway through the wait, Deb came up to me and asked if I knew where the bags were. I said, "well, if you didn't jinx us on the way down, they'd be here by now." Luckily, Deb laughed and we started talking. We found out that we were working at the same trade show that week, so I decided to play it cool (for the first time) and told Deb that we should just meet at the show the next day. The next day came and right when the show opened, I couldn't wait and found Deb. She was working at her company's booth (and I snuck away from mine) and just started to chat away. After a while I realized that I should give her a break to work a bit and (again playing it cool) told Deb that she should just stop by my booth sometime. After all, I knew where she was going to be for the rest of the show. That time never happened, or so I thought. Deb did in fact stop by, but no one gave me the message. After a day of not seeing Deb, I got a bit anxious (so much from Mr. Cool) and went back to Deb's booth. Unfortunately she was nowhere to be found (and she felt that it was I who didn't return her message). We left the show not seeing each other again. The one thing I knew was where Deb worked and as luck would have it, I had a friend who worked there (who happened to be Deb's friend as well). I begged him for Deb's number and after he gave in, I was able to call Deb up. We laughed about how cool I tried to be, how it totally backfired and planned for a real date. Our first date went well and by the third, Deb half-jokingly asked me to join her on a trip she was taking to Costa Rica the next week. I said yes and we spent our fourth date shopping for my clothes for the trip. We had a blast in Costa Rica and while we were head-over-heals for each other before we left on the trip, spending an amazing week together clinched the deal (or as I rhetorically asked during the trip "there's no going back, is there?"). After the trip we separately told our mutual friend that we were going to get married some day. And so after a year or so of dating, I asked Deb to marry me on New Year's Eve 2000 (my birthday) in front of a bunch of our friends and we celebrated that New Year as the start of our lives together. |
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