John and I first crossed paths at the grocery store. We definitely noticed each other, but played it cool and continued shopping. When we bumped into each other again in the coffee aisle, it was clear he was checking me out! Later, I learned he hadn’t said anything because he didn’t want to be “that guy.” I wasn’t about to let him slip away that easily, so I decided to make my move and stood right behind him in the checkout line. I couldn’t help but laugh when he realized I was there—he started fumbling through magazines, trying to come up with something to say. To my surprise, he asked if I’d like help carrying my groceries to the car. The rest was history!

When things were just starting to getting serious, Claire revealed her existing plan to move to Hawaii and live with her sister. We both opted to break promises to ourselves to "never do another long-distance-relationship" and continued to date, with several trips between NC, HI, and CA, until Claire eventually decided to move back to NC.