It was a Tuesday afternoon; I’m working at my desk in the living room and heard a knock on my door. I looked through the peephole and didn't quite recognize the person standing on the other side, but there was a friendly enough face peering through, so I cautiously opened the door. Can never be too safe in Brentwood! I open the door, he says to me “Elizabeth?!” as he points his finger towards me. I look at him, point at myself and say “Michelle”, he replies, “Are you sure?” I respond, “Yes…I'm pretty sure I'm Michelle”. He says well it was worth a guess since we have quite a few Elizabeths in our building. He apologizes for the mix-up with my name and begins explaining that he's literally my next-door neighbor – so close we share a bedroom wall. He then begins this whole spiel; there’s a work event tonight, it's a special wine dinner at Mastro’s Ocean Club in Malibu and he heard me clanking around in my boots with my girlfriends from going out so he assumed that I would be into an event like that. Mind you, at this point he did not tell me his name, but at least knew my name was Michelle, not Elizabeth. This stranger at my door invites me to a fancy wine dinner at 4:30p, day of. I tell him that I need to check on a few things before committing. I had to go Millionaire style and phone a friend to get their take on this potential date! I call my girlfriend Lindsay, my ‘yes girl’! She doesn’t hesitate, “you should definitely go, you never know what could happen!” Worst case, we don’t connect – no harm, no foul, at least I'll have a friend in the building to watch football and golf with as I wasn’t even thinking about the possibility of a relationship. My decision was made; I took the not so long walk next door and knocked on his door. I didn’t know what time we were leaving. It’s 4:45p mid-week, haven’t washed my hair in a few days so I need a full wash, blow dry, hair curl, makeup - which every lady can understand. I asked him what time we need to leave, he said 7p, doable. I scurry back to my place and get ready, quickly. He didn’t give me his name during the ‘introduction’ ask-me-out monologue. We’re driving towards PCH and I still don’t know this person’s name that I’m in the car with. We had a group text thread with all the tenants in our building so I tried to slyly ask which phone number is his so I can add contact info, “what’s your name again?” And this is when I finally got his name. It is, in fact not Eric - It’s Griffin Greenberg. We arrive at Mastro's, sitting in a beautiful private room overlooking the ocean for the fancy wine dinner. He assumed that the girl he brought didn't have dietary issues, but little did he know, I’m lactose intolerant! I mention that I can’t eat dairy, so the gentleman that he is, runs into the kitchen, lets chef know to modify the menu! It’s all couples at the table, plus a few of his coworkers who are presenting the wine & food pairings for each course. Griffin and I are seated across from a sweet couple, we’re enjoying some nice wine, chitchatting with them and his coworkers between courses. After the 2nd course, the woman across from us says, “Oh, you know you guys are such a cute couple, how long have you been together? How’d you meet?” At this point, I had known this man for barely 3 hours but before I responded, I turn to him and with my eyes asked, “how do you want to play this tonight?” We launch into full improv mode, “Honey, no you tell it – you tell it so much better!” I put it on him to see if we would be honest and say that we just met or not. The latter. He explains, with great detail, how we met 5 years ago on a trip and have been inseparable ever since. The couple bought it, they saw the immediate chemistry we had and didn’t bat an eye. Well, that cute but fake origin story of our relationship was the best first date. What a whirlwind of a night and what a crazy, fun story for how we met!