Wiccachicky and I both fell in love with the shyest men. Wallflowers as she put it. This is the story of how I met mine.

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I was 18 and sure of myself. I was in school, I had good friends, I was dating my first *real* boyfriend when love hit me right between the eyes. My best friend at the time had a knack for meeting people on-line and I was always dragged along as the "safety net" in case they person turned out to be a weirdo. Lucky for us, no weird guys. Just really nice ones.

We were at a friend's place (Dirk, a guy she had met in a chat room and who we'd had coffee with on numerous occasions and decided he was a good guy - for the record he is a good guy. I miss him and his little girl Ariel) hanging around on a Friday night. I was there with the BF that both Dirk and Shannon didn't like. They thought he was weird. Dirk, was always, was online. He was trying to convince this other guy that he'd met to come by for a drink. He finally managed to convince him with an offering of free beer and good company. 40 minutes later the doorbell rang and after a short, drug (Mary Jane, no hard stuff for me thank you very much) and alcohol induced argument, it was decided that I should get the door because I was sitting right next to it. And so I opened the door and fell in love.

That night, after a few more drinks, we planned a weekend get away, essentially, a drinking fest at a cabin in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere outside of Boston Bar. By that point, I'd already forgotten about the guy I was with and after a quick goodbye and a kick in the ass out the door, he was out of my life - all in the span of 3 hours. Yeah, I was young and a bit crazed and yes, everyone was right, he WAS a loser.

Two weeks later, 8 of us met at Dirk's house with 5 cars, one full of food and one with a trunk-full of $300 worth of alcohol. We headed up to the cabin and as soon as we arrived, the fun started. The keg and the booze found a new home in the bathtub full of ice (which meant to showering for the weekend - grossness). At about 3AM I claimed for my own the pull out bed right in front of the fireplace and at first light, I awoke to find a strange man beside me. I was under the sheets and he'd obviously passed out where ever because he looked like he was freezing. I sat up, started reading my book and pulled the blankets over the mystery man. I hadn't realized at first it was Dan but when I did, I felt suddenly happy. He woke up a few hours later and we exchanged a few words. He wasn't much of a talker and throughout the weekend, he spent large amounts of time drinking on a rock overlooking the river that ran right behind the cabin. I am seriously afraid of heights (like, I nearly fainting crossing a suspension bridge) but I went out there on more than one occasion to make small talk. On the last day, Dan, Paco and I stayed up until 5:30 in the morning drinking while the boys complained and asked me why they couldn't find a nice girl. I felt like turning to Dan and saying "HELLO! AND WHAT THE HELL AM I????"
When we got home, Dirk asked me what I thought of Dan. I was honest, I told him I really liked him and that he seemed a nice guy. Dirk swore to me that Dan hadn't asked about me. What a liar.

Two weeks after that crazy weekend, we were out at our local hang out. I had gone with Shannon and she was going to drop me off at home but she decided to head off and meet some people somewhere else. But before she left, she asked Dan to drive me home. And so, at 2AM on a Friday night, on a long, quiet ride home, he asked me if I'd like to have dinner and I, gushing of happiness inside, casually said sure.

Our first date started with ice cream on the beach at 11am on a Saturday morning, included a trip home to change and dinner. We talked and talked and talked. And 8 years later, we're still talking.

And when people ask us how we met, we always say "In bed". And of course, they always want to know the details. It's our little joke.