It Was Love When: Tales from the Beginning of Love » best of

An Old Friend

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:30:10 +0000

Very soon after starting to date my husband, I suspected that we would marry. It’s not that the infatuation was more intense than in other relationships. It was just a sense of recognizing my husband, as if I were walking down the street and happened to run into an old friend.

—Rachel

Postscript: We have been married for 19 years.

True Blue Chicago

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:30:50 +0000

I fell in love with my husband when he put my bicycle in a taxi cab during the Chicago riots of 1968. This was our first meeting.

—Diane

Postscript: We have been married for 41 years, and our daughter was a scholarship recipient of the 19th Century Charitable Association.

Literary Love

tdomf_62a71 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:10:37 +0000

We were just friends, but I was always kinda into him & recently those feelings were getting more intense. Then, at a bookstore one day, he called to me from down the aisle, “Hey! Darling! What book is that?” My heart jumped, flipped, froze and melted.

– Ronni

Postscript: He can call me that anytime.

Looseness and Wild Relief

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:50:34 +0000

Our play had been a success, though of course I hadn’t liked it much. She’d been great, though, and somehow the looseness and wild relief of the after party buoyed me across the room to her. She said she’d never seen me like this – cheery, the smile on my face without a trace of irony.

— Steve

Postscript: We dangled our feet in a pool, later that night, and quietly talked till dawn as we watched the darting reflections on the water.

Gimme Some Sugar, Baby

Joralyn — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:01:12 +0000

We began dating a week prior to my birthday. He bought me a gaming guide for World of Warcraft and a Bruce Campbell movie and poster—he paid attention to what I liked and didn’t get me the standard flowers or candy.

—Joralyn

Postscript: We’re married and happy and play WoW together. (Yep, we’re nerds!)

Crush, Deliberation

admin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:48:06 +0000

It was the end of high school. She’d been my crush for two years, the object of so many furtive glances. My every move toward her was planned, prioritized, considered, debated. We’d become friends; if not close, then trusting. In the final week of school, I tossed deliberation to the winds and asked her out.

— Dan

Postscript: We dated for five, heady months before the separation of college drove us apart.

Noir

admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:33:26 +0000

Tired of trying the old singles party tricks , I went up to him – thin, a small smile beneath his lively eyes – and asked if he wanted to leave and grab some coffee. “Ok,” he said softly, “but only if we can talk about 50s noir while we drink.”

—Lisa

Postscript: We’re still drinking coffee, still watching 50s noir, and still adamantly avoiding the old singles’ parties.

A Street Car Named Designer

admin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:22:21 +0000

Seeing a new play, a pert be-skirted woman sat down on the seat next to me. As the play progressed, I grew a little tired of the actors, but the set kept on impressing me. “I wish the cast would leave and I could just hang out on the set,” I said to my mysterious companion. “I designed that,” she said immediately.

—Rob

Postscript: We did hang out on the set that night, and it turned out our love of her work wasn’t the only thing we have in common.

Heretic Love

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:35:41 +0000

On my third day in college, a discussion leader divided up a class for a debate. One side of the room would defend the existence of God, the other deny it. As people shuffled around uncomfortably at the most poorly designed ice breaker of all time, I noticed that the atheist side was just me and a beautiful brunette. “Heretic,” she whispered at me.

—Ben

Postscript: Six godless months later, she’s still whispering sly witticisms in my ear.

The Ant and the Grape

tdomf_62a71 — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:34:45 +0000

I was driving the groom into the church parking lot when I saw her. She was hauling this ridiculously huge green Victorian costume she had to wear as bridesmaid out of her compact car. It was like an ant carrying a grape. The groom knew something was up when I fell dead silent in mid-sentence…and stayed silent.

–Irresponsible Uncle Billy

Postscript: Ten years later I was driving the cakes to our own wedding.