It's rather amazing...

​We didn't know the other even though we went to the same high school.  We didn't know the other even though we were in the same class.  We had never seen each other even though we were in the same school events, and in the same group photos in the yearbook.  We even graduated the same year.

Let's be honest about it - we met online.  After many, many years not knowing each other.  And she was online only because she was nursing a bicycling injury and not as social as we would otherwise have been.  We spent weeks talking before we met, and it was weeks before we realized our connected past.  One evening we built a small patio, sat two chairs on it and went through the yearbook.  

Looking back I think we met in one of the best ways possible - as strangers.  No known history together, no known mutual friends.  No influences.  Just a question: Do we like each other for who we are now?  Yes, we do.  Early on, life split our paths apart by a nation's distance, and then at the perfect-coincidental moment crossed again with "Hello, I'm Eric" and "Hi, my name is Nicolette."  

We weren't looking for our last first-kiss, or our last first-date.  But it was.  We've built much, danced all night, and climbed high.  

And now another question: Do we want to get married?  Yes, we do.