OUR STORY
The moment
Ava's version: I fell in love with Shane in the span of 15 minutes... or about the time it took me to walk from Buca di Beppo to the Powell Bart station. Although we had been working together at Scient for several weeks beforehand, something about that evening made me see him in an entirely new light. As I left the restaurant that night, with each progressive step, I kept thinking about what a cool person he was, and how much I enjoyed talking to him... I felt happier and warmer. By the time my train arrived I realized that I had a crush on him!The next couple of following weeks were pretty hard. I wanted to know more about him, and spend more time with him, but seeing as he was my group's advisor, we never had an opportunity to be alone, and as my training easily kept me in the office for over 70hr/week, those tasks were going to prove difficult. I couldn't make it obvious that I was interested, so I had to result to getting my group to scout out some responses for me. The top two on the list? "Was he single?" (of course), and "Was he gay?" (this is SF after all).
Some days following, luck shined upon me as I was in the training room by myself wrapping up some documentation. He walked in with a bag of McD's fries (his addiction at the time). Earlier that day a colleague had posted 4 tix to see Moby in concert... playing the night after our project together ended. It was fate! I asked him if he'd ever seen Moby before live, and if he was interested in going. He said 'Yes'. Yes everybody, it was I who made the first move!!!
Our first kiss: Our last night of Blast we had a team dinner. Following, Shane invited us back to his place. I fenagled myself out of my party plans that evening, and he offered me a ride to the train if I agreed to stay longer. As the rest of my group left, it was just me and him. He gave me a hug, and as it started to end I didn't pull away. He kissed me! He asked me to stay, and to both of our surprise, I heard myself say: "You've been drinking tonight, so I won't. I'm going to go and let you think about what happened here, but I will see you tomorrow and if you still want me to stay I will!"
The rest... as they say "Is history!" I've loved every moment we've spent together, and I've never felt more right and better completed with anyone before than with him. Every step along the way in our relationship has been a blessing and I am looking forward to all the things to come.
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Shane's version: I first saw Ava on an early Saturday morning when her BLAST class first met. BLAST was an intense four week training program for new college hires at the company we worked. I was an advisor for the training and Ava was a participant. She caught my eye, but I didn't think much more about it. It was one of the little thoughts that proved to be more meaningful in hindsight.
Honestly, at first I didn't even consider asking her out because of the age difference (and I was her 'manager' for the duration of the class). As the class progressed, I began to see her in a different light. She was extremely bright, confident, and good looking. With only a week left in the BLAST class, we had a group dinner at Buca de Pepo. During the dinner, Ava and I ended up sharing a table. After a few glasses of wine, I really saw her in a different light! I'm not talking about beer goggles. I was just finally able to see past the age difference; and I had no problems noticing the leather pants!! Age is a state of mind and a stage of life.
So after that night, I had a week to wait until the class was over. Ava actually beat me to the punch by asking me to a Moby concert for the Saturday after the class was over. At the time she asked, I thought I was joining a group of her friends for the concert. Turned out it was just her and I, but she had two extra tickets. Steve Beeson took one of the extra tickets and joined us for the concert.
The last night of the BLAST class and the night before the concert, I invited a group of the BLASTers back to my loft after the BLAST celebration. I was hoping that Ava would join the group and she did. I still wasn't sure if the concert the next night was intended to be a real date or not, but I was sure that I was interested in pursuing something further with her. I offered to give her a ride to BART (the San Francisco subway) if she wanted to stay a little later (which was after the other BART riders were leaving). After the last person left, we somehow ended up in a hug. I think it was intended to be a good night hug, but it turned into a hug followed by a kiss. I recall being very nervous about the kiss, just not sure how she would react. She certainly made it easy by not pulling away after the hug. It felt like one of the moments in the movies where the entire crowd is yelling "Just Kiss Her!"
Since it was getting close to midnight, which is closing time for BART, I asked her if she wanted to stay (wink, wink). I wasn't sure if we had time to get her to the station in time to catch the last train. She actually said "No", but that if I still wanted her to stay on Saturday night she would. I remember thinking, "Wow, this girl is confident and doesn't play any games." It was certainly the beginning of falling in love.
As time went on, we spent more and more time together. She had decided to start skydiving before we went out, so our weekend time together at the dropzone was great. I'm not sure when I completely fell in love. I just remember thinking that all of my thoughts of the future included her.
The question
As the proposal is a story on it's own, which you can read at "Engagement Story".
