How we met

How do two people, who grew up on opposite sides of the world meet?

Claire really didn't want me to pen this, so I'll hand it over to her to explain how, over the course of over a month she schemed, plotted, recruited outsiders for help and all round stalked me.

How we met - the Unembellished Version

For those who know Chris, he's quite the story teller and loves the dramatic effect. I believe my narration is a bit closer to what happened. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

It was a fine Monday morning in January 2017. I had just gotten back from a short vacation in London and was enjoying my morning coffee at Vero's before heading off to work.

Before we dive into what happened next, let me give you some background:

1. I've lived in Downtown San Jose since 2012

2. Vero's coffee was my first stop everyday (almost)

3. I've become good friends with Veronica and Omar (see bullet 2)

Okay - let's resume. As usual, I was chatting with Omar and Veronica while enjoying my flat white. On this particular day, Chris had run out of coffee and decided to give Vero's a try. He ordered his long black and inserted himself in our conversation. That was how we met.

We spent many hours getting to know one another over coffee before our first date.

Was it chance that brought us together? I would argue mostly. And a little help from Veronica...she interrogated him as needed. After many encounters at the coffee shop, I suggested In and Out after Chris complained about a burger he ate the previous night. In retrospect not the most romantic restaurant suggestion, albeit a very tasty one. We ended up going to Nemea and the rest is history.

Our love for good coffee and company brought us together. We still get coffee together every morning!