"So how did you guys meet?"

Of course Zyola, remembers the story well. She was keeping logged copies of letters she faxed back and forth with her friend Shannon up in Colorado. Wanna hear it? Here it goes....

We met in August of 1994 at Fast Eddies in Kailua. He was working the door, I was waiting for a friend. My friend never showed, so I ended up talking to the bouncer. I would never have guessed how far it could have gone. We both talked about how we couldn't stand the opposite sex. We'd both just gotten out of bad relationships, just returned to the islands, and just wanted release. He was working, so I went dancing.

I danced by myself. Many men supposedly came up to dance with me and were taking turns, to hear him tell it. "The men were lining up on the edge of the dance floor, taking turns. One would dance with her, then the next would come up. And none of them got more than a 'Hi' out of her. It was amazing." He even got jealous at one point that night. He tried to be smooth when the club was closing, and introduce me to his friends. He said everyone's name and then turned to me looking properly abashed and said, "And, I'm sorry, I forgot your name." With all honesty, I replied. "You never asked me my name." His friends got a big kick out of that. But he recovered quickly by admitting it.

At the end of the night, he offered to take me home, when I asked him to watch me as I walked outside to hail a cab. I agreed, because his coworkers knew he was taking me, and he still had to pick up his brother who was also working the club that night. Silly reasons, but I felt safe with him. He dropped me off at my place and invited me to return to the club the following weekend. I told him I'd try.

Monday morning I went to work and wrote my friend about the good looking man I met over the weekend. I told her that he invited me back to the club, but I didn't think so because he probably wouldn't remember me . She dared me to go, and since I accept reasonable dares I took it.

I went back Friday night, and saw him at the door. He remembered me by name. I was very surprised. He took me home again that night, and we talked all night about the Army, parents, ex's , books, movies, everything. He even admitted he had wanted to come by my place during that first week but was too shy.

Within the next week we saw a lot of each other. We took lots of walks, and read lots of books. He came over to my place many times. I was naive and thought he came to read my sci-fi books. Finally, he realized I wasn't getting the hint. So he asked me point blank, "Will you be my girlfriend?" I had never been asked the question and was afraid to answer. What if I answered yes, and he said, "Pscyhe!" Or if I said no and I lost out. After about 3 hours, I decided to be honest and said yes.

4 weeks later, we admitted we were in love with each other. 6 months later we knew we were meant to spend the rest of our lives together. We waited to make the commitment for various personal, and obligatory reasons. And now here we are seven years later finally able to say, "I will."