Once upon a time...

She moved into the apartment the weekend before the 4th of July.  It was a new job, a new town, a new salary, and, of course, a new apartment.  She had never lived in a town that large or lived in an apartment with a pool.  She'd hit the big time.  She had moved over 600 miles for this adventure, after searching the nation for a unique job that would excite her.  And she had found it, in this university town that would come to mean more to her than she could ever imagine.  

The first week of her work went well.  Then Saturday came.  New town, new adventures.  What to do, what to see?  First on the list was going to the apartment pool.  How fun to just run down to the pool with a towel!  The sign on the fence said pool should be open but it was locked.  Disappointing.  Well, on to plan B.

Back to the apartment to peruse the map.  She had just driven 600 miles so it would be no problem to drive to where ever.  She picked out a state park about 75 miles away. Maybe there would be a place to swim there.

As she dumped her towel and purse in her car in the apartment parking lot, a man passed her and said, "Too bad the pool is locked."  He walked on to his car. Who was he?  How did he know that she wanted to go to the pool?  She wondered about him all the way to the park.  Maybe she should have asked him to come with her.  That would have been interesting.  But you can't just meet a man in the parking lot and ask him to go some place with you.  Even though that would be bizarre and possibly dangerous, she thought about him off and on the rest of the day.

The next day was Sunday and the pool was open.  A day at the pool, and, guess what?  That  same man was at the pool.  He lived in the apartments.  Soon introductions were made.  He was a sun worshiper and, while she was not a fan of the sun, she certainly could stay out in the sun for the right reasons.  They spent much of the day together at the pool.  By the end of the day, he asked her to go to the Fourth of July party the next day at a local city park.  She accepted and they spend a second day together.  

Back to work the next week, another good week.  The next Friday evening came and she heard a knock on apartment door.  She looked through the peephole and there was her new friend.

Almost 30 years later, my friend is still here, sitting right now beside me.  We married over two years after we met.  He was the first "non-work" person I met at my new home, new town, new state.  Neither he or I were looking for romance at the time or, at least, neither of us would admit it.   I was entering an exciting time in my life and wasn't settled in enough to look around for dating.  While it was certainly "like" at first sight, neither of us admitted to anything such as "love" at first sight.  But when I retell this story, I realize maybe it was love at first sight.  We just didn't know it.