Etc...

Finally, after a couple of months of emails, lists and one mere phone call, they decided to meet. On Friday, August 27th 2004, they met. Oh, what a night it would be.

The city of Chicago was in a heat wave, ninety degrees with seventy to eighty percent humidity. It was muggy and hot, like a swamp. But in this swamp, grew a bud of love between two people who had just met for the first time. They had decided to meet at the Belmont redline station at 8 o'clock. As she got off the train, Christopher took a hasty picture of her and sealed their fate with this photo:

Finally, they spoke and it was awkward. The letters and emails advanced the relationship faster than their physical presence. With no plans, they walked to an apartment where Jessica was cat sitting. The apartment was dark and looked vaguely like a man lived there. In latter conversations, Christopher discovered that this was an apartment of one of Jessica's ex-boyfriends.

After that, the two future love birds took a cab to a coffee house in the heart of Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood. As luck would have it, a gifted guitarist was playing that night. He was surrounded by many of Jessica's best friends in Chicago. He played his lap guitar, sang about Dixie cups and getting stuck in the drive way in the snow. Awkwardly they sat together, still unsure if the connection they had been so confident of in the lists and letters would become a reality.

Turns out the guitarist was another ex-boyfriend of Jessica's.

Dinner for the evening was at a bar whose name is lost to the ages. At this feast, a thin crust pizza with black olives and mushrooms was consumed and two mugs of beer were downed. In the hot hot heat of the night, Christopher's low tolerance for alcohol got the best of him. With love somewhere in the air, Christopher offered to woo Jessica by paying for dinner and only to have his card declined. Jessica was gracious enough to pay for dinner and set in motion the dance of romance that would last forever.

The awkwardness still palpable, Christopher suggested that they end the night at the Improv Olympic, home of long form improvisation theatre in Chicago. It was midnight by now and hotter than ever in the city of broad shoulders. They saw a horrendous show, and not in a way that makes people laugh at how bad it is, but bad in a special way, the way that bad shows can fester under one's skin like a scabie. After an hour of torture, both Christopher and Jessica tapped out.

It was a turning point in the evening.

As they approached the Addison redline station, a notion overcame Christopher. In a haze of clear-headedness, he suggested that they go down to the lake, to see the water. Most women would have given up at this point, especially considering there was still no true spark between them, just the gut feeling they carried from the letters, but Jessica persevered. As they approached the lake, the humidity reached a boiling point. The young almost-couple came to the lakes edge, and if by some divine miracle, the sky opened up. Rain, like sheets of warm water, poured over them. There was no shelter to be found. They only had each other, and the shelter of an old tree. Christopher and Jessica looked at each other and knew, at that moment that the entire evening was washed away. All the bad times, all the awkward moments, were being cleansed by the pouring rain. In a feeble voice, Christopher asked Jessica for a hug, under the giant oak tree. In that moment, the bond between these two semi-strangers was sealed. The awkwardness rinsed away and the connection that had begun months before emerged and rapidly blossomed into a full garden of laughter, shared dreams, and joy.

Two and half years later, it was under that same tree that Christopher proposed on bended knee to his lovely lady.

And that, is the beginning chapters. Through instinct, hope of something grand, perseverance and pure fate, the seeds of happiness were planted. Christopher and Jessica, after a truly terrible first date, have reaped great joy and comfort in their shared lives.