That time I accidentally fell in love

Just when I thought love
was the stuff of fairytales
I found out it’s real

---

A year ago today I pulled up to what I thought would be a swing dance event. Instead I found a local band playing to an almost-empty park pavilion in the middle of rural Massachusetts.

But I found love, too.

We weren’t looking for romance. We deliberately avoided looking at each other all evening, even when we were the only two people left at the tiny venue.

A local woman and her friend wandered in just before the band wrapped up. She reached for my hand, inviting me to dance. I took it. The song ended. So she sat us down … at his table 😱

Her progression of questions went something like this:

“Where are you from?”

“So you drove 45 minutes North. And he drove 45 minutes South. Why here, of all places?”

“How did you get such unique names?”

“Wait, you’re BOTH from Utah?”

I don’t know how so many random connections tumbled out over the course of such a short conversation. We were both in tech. Both loved hiking and Contra and Regina Spektor and Blendtec. We were both bewildered by the uncanny coincidences.

And we were both trying hard to not gawk at each other. Sparks were flying.

But I don’t trust sparks, so I brought out my secret defense: the awkward goodbye.

I abruptly stood to leave, gave a Vulcan sign and sang, “So long, farewell!”

He finished,
“Auf Wiedersehen, adieu!” 🖖

I ran to my car. But all the way back to my AirBnb, I wished I’d asked for his number. So once I was settled in, I hopped online to see if I could cyber snoop a bit. He’d already sent a Facebook friend request.

We decided to meet the next day to chat and suss out what in the world was happening.

As soon as we held hands, we knew.

It still feels like a dream. But every day, he reminds me: this is real.