When we first met and everyone thought we had known one other for years. We finished each other’s sentences (obscure ones too). Both of us had just of bad relationships, and we didn’t think that we had the capacity to love anyone ever again. I’m a self admitted commitment-phobe. It was love when were parting ways and we would say, “Hate you.” I realized that I didn’t want to ever hate anyone else ever again.

—Tabitha

Postscript: Still going strong, we’re moving to Hawaii later this year.

7

I believe in love at first sight. I saw him at a wedding and I knew that I wanted to be with him. We instantly hit it off. We’ve kept in touch for the past 4 years. I recently saw him and all my feeling came rushing back. My world stops when he hugs me. He is seeing someone else, but won’t admit that to me. I don’t know how things will end up but I can’t imagine myself being with anyone else but him. He makes me so damn happy!

—Still Waiting

Postscript: I’ll wait until he realizes how much I love him.

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We were dating for a few months when he said “elephant shoe” to me at a friend’s barbecue. I was lost and had no idea what it meant. So I nervously laughed it off. One of my friends overheard our conversation, shook his head and said, “He said, ‘I love you!’ ” The whole time he was smiling and looking at me. (But he did yell at my friend for ruining the moment.)

—Stuck

Postscript: It lasted two years. I left him because I thought he stopped loving me. It turns out, he never did. He continued to be my Superman and rock, even after the breakup.

1

Our relationship started after we both had suffered serious breakups. I woke up one morning to an emailed picture of her swollen and bloody lip, sent from her mobile phone. She had gone out the night before. Turns out she had seen her ex at a bar, and he kissed her, and she kissed him back. Afterward she felt awful, she made the friend she was with punch her in the face. It is the most bizarre gesture of remorse I think I’ll ever witness.

—Alex

Postscript: It’s now months later and the right side of her lip is still sort of puffy, if you know where to look. It’s her birthday and we’re moving in together.

6

Six months into dating him, I caught him reading my diary. He had discovered that before dating him, I had been with a married man. We argued for five hours straight, but when we both realized neither one was leaving nor giving up, we knew we were in it for the long haul.

—Professor Mary

Postscript: We’ve been married for nine years, we have three kids and couldn’t be happier, although neither one keeps a journal.

6

I had a dream in which Elvis Presley told me he was the one I was looking for.

—Suzanna

Postscript: After eight years of on-again, off-again high passion and high drama, it turns out Elvis ain’t the smartest guy about relationships. The guy may be gone, but my love for Elvis remains.

3

We worked together and had been friends for over a year. One night, I’d gone out with other friends and had my single worst night of drunkenness ever. The next morning, I still had to get home while wearing the same clothes in which I’d been sweating and puking the previous night. Always the class act, I popped in at work to say hello to a few people. She was there. She came up and gave me the slow, deliberate hug while I was at my most revolting, and she smiled until I left.

—Bill

Postscript: We spent two great weeks together before I moved out of town. I haven’t seen her, and she hasn’t smelled me, in years.

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