How we met:

Mary’s Version

I met Jeremy on Match.com. I did a search for “single men in possession of large fortunes” within 5 miles of my house and I got about 100 matches, so then I “winked” (which is like poking on facebook) at the ones who looked interesting. The thing I remember most about Jeremy’s profile was his intense eyes, and to this day they are one of the things I love most about him.

We emailed for a while and then talked on the phone and I thought it went pretty well, but when I didn’t hear from him for over 6 weeks I almost forgot about him. Then out of the blue one day he IMed me and we started talking again. So we arranged to meet in person. We were going to meet for coffee at the Barnes and Noble where I arranged to meet all my first dates that I met online. The morning of the date, I received an email from Jeremy saying that he had really bad food poisoning and could we reschedule? Well, given that he had disappeared off the face of the planet after we talked for the first time, I felt fairly certain that he just didn’t want to meet me. But, I said I would reschedule for the following week. Later that week I got another email from him, this time he said he couldn’t meet me because his “step-father’s-ex-wife” had died and he had to go home to MN for the funeral. I bet you can guess what I was thinking in my head….a pretty lame excuse. But I gave him one last chance, and I said if he really wanted to meet me, we could meet the next night for dinner (I never did a dinner date on the first date!). He said yes, and we met.

The next night I had another date, with a different guy (yes, yes, I know I was quite the player). At the end of the week I was having dinner with some close friends and they asked me which guy I was interested in and I said that I just couldn’t stop thinking about Jeremy. And I never have.

Jeremy’s Version

I had seen Mary’s profile on Match.com and while I never had a thing for women in construction helmets before, she was awfully cute in hers.  Me being me, however, I bookmarked her profile and never actually contacted her.  Thankfully, she reached out to me, and we ended up chatting a bit on the phone and online.  Then I got busy at work and didn’t respond to her for a couple days.  A couple days turned into three, then four, as I felt the amount of awkwardness in finally responding was directly proportional to the amount of time I had not contacted her.

A month or so passed, and finally I manned up and found her online.  She seemed surprised – yet happy – to hear from me.  Eventually we made plans for a date, which I proceeded to miss due to the worst food poisoning of my life.  (Thanks, Grendel’s!)  We rescheduled, but I canceled a second time in order to fly to Minnesota for my stepfather’s ex-wife’s funeral – which, in retrospect, admittedly does sound like a made-up excuse.  Calling what she thought was my bluff, Mary suggested we meet before I flew to Minnesota, rather than waiting around for me to miss a third first date.  We chose dinner at Bertucci’s, a restaurant down the street from my office.  I refrained from letting anyone I worked with know about this, as they would undoubtedly have shown up and scared her off.  Luckily, I made a good enough impression that she agreed to a second date, then a third, and, after a couple years, a lifetime together.