In a bar instead of online like NORMAL PEOPLE.

All jokes and sarcasm aside, I met my wife in a bar as her and her friend were trying to avoid a guy who seemed to be bothering them. Offered to buy the all a round of drinks and said we are at a table over in the corner if they wanted to join. My future wife and her friend said yeah lets go the guy had a sour look on his face and said no thanks but I will take the beer.

Had a wonderfully late night talking and laughing with her and fell in love shortly after.

As an aside OP, are you still in Korea?

Met last year through online dating, met once when we were able to and sparks flew when I saw he eyes light up at me mentioning that the intersection outside my front door really should be a roundabout.

Never knew how sexy a politically active dryad could be until I was seeing one whenever we had the chance to meet up. She’s legit like a forest spirit that shows up from congress with the fey courts and immediately wants to jump me and it’s fucking amazing. 10/10, date the witchy ones if you know how to appreciate them, they will have you under a spell you’ll never want to be freed from.

Maybe it’s second honeymoon phase since we’re getting to see each other for the first time in a few months after I caught a nasty bug, but the needed time apart has just reinforced to me that my life’s better with her in it than it is when she’s not, and if that’s not a healthy foundation for something bigger to be built on, I haven’t found what is yet.

I was joining the crew of a ship that I had worked on before. When I met the mate in the tender to bring me aboard I requested to be moved into a specific cabin (to avoid being put in the one that shares a bulkhead with the engine room water tight door which is clanged loudly every half hour for safety checks). That cabin was already occupied by my future wife.

Long time ago i was an actor and a cook at a medieval market. it was Beltane and my best friend said “I’ll get you a wife tonight”. It didn’t work, and she was very upset about it. I had some sausages on the fire when some girls walked past, and i cried out loud "i’m giving a sausage in a bun for a virgin, anyone interested?. One girl was interested, but very annoying, but her friend was cute. So now i’m married with two children with her.

Introduced by a college friend. Buddy of mine was visiting my home country, we plan to meet up and he randomly and last minute tells me he’s inviting an acquaintance to our meet up. I was a bit annoyed at the sudden change in plans but turns out the rando he invited was a pretty cool lady with a lot of shared interests.

We went to a concert together that weekend, a comic convention the next and the fun kept going.

She was dating my ex girlfriend. They split. My ex recommended she ask me out because she thought we might be a good fit. It’s been 14 years.

Having a previous significant partner that I split with on good terms has always been a great strategy for getting a new partner.

I was just looking for a watch buddy online and then she began becaming intimate with me because she found me handsome 🤷‍♂️

We were in the same circle of friends freshman year of high school and it didn’t take long for us to start dating. He moved across the state sophomore year, so we were long distance for a couple years, but he came back for university. We moved in together after graduating, married around four years later, and he’s still putting up with me after twenty 😊

She came to visit a mutual friend for the weekend. We met and by the end of the first evening I was kind of hooked. We’ve been married for 23 years now and have 4 beautiful children.

In 2017 I was coming out as transgender and looking for a job. Got an interview as head evening manager at a grocery store. Go in for the interview and am not sure if I’m out yet, but the store manager figured it out and was really open and said they had 2 trans people working there already, so I’m like fuck it, get the job and am out.

One of the other trans people is my right hand person like 2-3 days/week, store manager tries to enthusiastically but awkwardly introduce us.

Over the next couple of weeks everything goes to shit in the store; manager is fired, lot’s of employees leave, severely understaffed, etc. I’m working like 80 hour weeks and every evening is a battle, and through commiseration and tough days a bond forms between me and the other person. Start meeting every time I have a day off and start dating like 6 weeks after we first meet, and 6 weeks after that we move in together.

Been together almost 7 years, now. Worked together for the first 3ish.

Best friend of a girl I met through online dating, who insisted that the two of us has to meet. Long story short she quickly moved in 14 years ago and we got 2 kids quite quickly as well.

Man…

Ok, so I was 12 years old and had only just moved from England to Australia. First few days of high school I noticed this girl. Normal looking girl - beautiful eyes, but one of those beautiful people that tends to be quiet and go by unnoticed… But I noticed her.

I was always very outgoing and loud, and she was more quiet and reserved. I loved to do card tricks. I also became incredibly shy when I wanted to talk to her, so I devised a plan

I laid some playing cards on the corner of my desk and waited for her to walk past. When she did, I knocked them off and we started a convwrsation…

Eventually I did some card trick and knew she’d picked the 3 of Diamonds. That card has held significance for us this whole time…

Through high school we both had feelings for eachother - me, being confident, silly and outgoing declaring my love for her to everyone and asking her out on a few occasions, never looking at the other girls who wanted to spend more time with the English boy who now lives in Australia. I only had eyes for her. I just knew she was the one.

But for 4 and a half years of high school it never happened. She was too shy to say yes, and I was too shy to ask properly. Sure, I’d slipped her notes and I’d asked on a few occasions, but it never happened. She did say yes once and we “dated” for 2 weeks but nothing happened, not a kiss, nothing. We wwre both young and inexperienced in relationship’s and after 2 weeks she said “you’re dumped”… It hurt.

But for that whole high school time everyone in school knew we wanted eachother.

Then came secondary school (High school in Aus is year 7-10 when you’re like, 12-16ish in age, secondary is Year 11 and 12 when you’re about 16-18ish)

In secondary school I met my then best friend… He was a great bloke and we got along like a house on fire. A couple of months into Year 11 he asked if he could ask the girl I loved out… I told him “Why not, she doesn’t want me anyway” so he did.

They got together and we stayed friends. I was heartbroken but I wanted the best for her and he seemed like a good bloke, and I didn’t want to ruin what they had by being upset or jealous, and I didn’t want to lose my friendship with either of them, so I kept my feelings hidden and eventually went on to date other girls. By this time she and I were about 17…

The following few years we all hung out with our friends group and they stayed together… I was the best man at their wedding and one of the first to meet their newborn son when he arrived…

But then slowly we drifted… Id message him and get no replies, or short and careless ones. I’d long since stopped messaging her as usually messaging him was realistically intended for the both of them anyway…

And so 4 years went by without any contact from either of them…

Then I had a son. I wasn’t in a good place or a good relationship at the time. Don’t get me wrong, my then partner was fine. She is a good person but we just didn’t fit and I feel I was with her out of lonliness more than love.

Anyhow, I got a message from the girl I loved through high school congratulating me on my son. I replied and asked how she was, told her I missed them and proposed a catch up with us all. I got no reply.

Another year passed and I left my then partner. 4 months-ish later, my high school crush had her then husband removed from the house for domestic violence. I found out through a chance encounter with her sister.

We made arrangements for me to go visit, and so I did.

I stepped into her house where her family was helping tidy the place and saw her down the long hall at a distance and so many of those feelings came flooding back.

I walked up and gave her the biggest hug. It felt like I held her forever… Then I got to work on helping tidy the house… Then I met her daughter for the first time. At this point she’d had 2 kids with her then husband. One was 3, the other, 5.

Through the next couple of weeks I spent a lot of time catching up with her and trying to offer my help where I could. I learned a lot more about my old “friend” and just how controlling, coercive, manipulative and abusive he was for the 17 years they were together. 17 long years that feel as if they were robbed from “us”… But we were so young…

At one point we kissed. And that was it. Finally, after knowing her for 21-22 years and loving her for so long, we finally kissed.

It just was right. There was so much going on, court dates to maintain an intervention order against her ex husband, him lying about anything and everything. His manipulation of the court system and even his own children continues to this day… But finally we had eachother and we weren’t about to let go.

I’d had a vasectomy after my son was born… But after a year of being with her I got it reversed. We now have a beautiful daughter together. We got married, too. Life together is what we should have always had. We both feel it.

Its tremendously difficult being the stepdad of 2 kids that are being conditioned and coerced into hating you 5 nights a fortnight, but they’re good kids. I’m trying my best for them

I feel I have a lot to unpack and work through but with 4 kids and working in disability support its next to impossible to afford any kind of therapy, let alone the free time to attend…

But I love her. So much. And she loves me. I have a tattoo on my side - a silhouette of the 2 of us on our wedding day, surrounded by the clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades suits to symbolise how we met. There are 3 diamonds.

Through the abuse she endured theres a lot for us both to work through but again, we’re so lucky to finally have eachother. We’re 35 now and spent half our lives apart, despite at one point wanting to be with eachother for 1/3 of our lives to that point… We’re not letting eachother go now. I couldn’t imagine life without her. She is everything to me. I just feel so sorry for our past selves. They deserved so much better.

I have to keep reminding myself that had we gotten together back then it might not have worked out how it has. We may have grown apart, or not had anything to compare to in order to see how good we really have it…

I love her. Always.

I’ve never written that all down before. There’s plenty more to it, but I felt compelled to really delve into it that time. Thank you so much for asking the question.

We were the only two people at a concert that weren’t part of the local arts scene, and this the only two who didn’t know anybody. I saw her alone and started talking to her. I was just trying to bum a cigarette, but she had other ideas.

We were in the same friend group in high school. We each dated others in the group but never had any interest in each other. I was living with one of his friends in college - still no interest at all. At a party one night we were talking and kissed me. It’s the kiss that changed my life. Married 30 years and I’m thankful every day.