He Says...

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I am not a social butterfly. Call me shy, call me quiet- whatever it is, you have to drag me to parties. So I think it's appropriate to say I found Erin in spite of myself.

The first time I had any true contact with Erin was at a Christmas party that Erin and her roommate, Meghan were throwing. Erin answered the door, kindly took my coat, and went on her merry way. I spent the entire party trying to be discrete as I could to not make my staring at the gorgeous girl completely obvious. Even if I were to muster up the courage to approach her, I would have likely embarrassed myself since she spent the whole evening flirting with her neighbor (or "the cute neighbor" if you ask her friends). As we all know, things worked out and as an added plus, I can always bring this day up for guilt trips.

After I returned from break, Meghan planned a dinner out with a group from the department. I felt like hell that day, but saw Erin's name on the email list. So I went, hoping that there was no ridiculously cute neighbor with her (there wasn't). Being the stalker green-horn that I was, I sat myself so the only empty seat was across from me. Erin completely fell for the trap. I spent the evening talking her ear off, which to Erin seemed like a normal conversation. To everyone else at the table, they knew I was crazy about her because I said more than 5 words to her.

After I asked her out we went to a local bar and after some scheming from the rest of group, I ended up alone at the table with her and had what most would probably call a first date. It was incredibly easy talking to her, which is no small feat for me.

And she hasn't gotten me to shut up since.

She Says...

In late 2005, I was living with a roommate, Meghan. She and I decided to throw a holiday party before the winter break, and we each invited our own friends. Meghan is in Chemical Engineering, and I didn't really know any other students in her department beforehand. I was stationed near the apartment door, so as people arrived I took their coats and sent them in to join the crowd. I didn't know this until later, but one of the people I took a coat from was Dan. In hindsight, I remember that I was able to get the right coat for him when it was time for him to leave (I remembered his eyes), but other than that my interaction with him didn't go past "hey, you must be a friend of Meghan's - come on in!"

When we returned to school after New Years, Meghan decided to invite a bunch of people out for a group dinner to catch up. She and I were late, so when we arrived at the restaurant there were only a couple of chairs at the table left. I had the strange sensation that I had met the guy sitting across from me at the table sometime before, but I couldn't place him. It was Dan. Once again, his eyes made an impression on me, and I wondered if he was single. We spent much of the dinner talking, and at the end I coerced him into splitting a Guinness sundae with me. Then, as he was getting ready to leave and give some people a ride home, he turned to me and asked if he could take me out sometime.

A handful of days went by, and I decided that I would give Dan a call on my walk home from lab. Dan answered almost immediately, sounding a little puzzled, but I couldn't figure out why. He suggested that we go ice skating in a couple of days, which sounded like a great idea to me. When I hung up, I immediately got a message that I had a voicemail. Confused, since I hadn't heard an incoming call, I listened to the message only to discover that it was Dan. He had called me less than 2 minutes before I called him, but with the bad phone signal I get in lab my phone had missed the call. Suddenly it made sense why Dan sounded so confused - he thought I was returning his call, not calling him of my own volition! Cruelly, I forgot to tell him what had happened until well after our first date. Oops.

We went ice skating a couple of days later, and afterwards, not wanting to call it a night yet, I suggested we get coffee. He admitted that he'd never tried coffee, but I assured him that was fine, they have lots of other options. Well, we got to Espresso Royale, and Dan insisted that he would have whatever I ordered. "Ummm, I'm ordering a small decaf - are you sure that's what you want?" He gritted his teeth and said yes. Well, I drink my coffee black. When I strongly suggested that he put some cream or sugar in his, he held his ground and said no, this is fine. He proceeded to drink the whole cup, black, without complaint or grimace. I'm pretty sure that first cup was, and forever will be, his last coffee. The next day I received a call from a flower shop asking when I would be home for a delivery. What lengths he went to in his efforts to impress me! What he didn't realize is that they were completely unnecessary.

From that point on we were pretty much inseparable, so much so that friends of Dan's began referring to us as "Derin" within three weeks of our first date (despite our objections).