Yesterday I was in a mentor session with my fellow Write of Passage member, Jojo. He is a master storyteller and gave our group a writing prompt.

"How did you realize you were in love."

The idea was to write a story keeping in mind the 3 emotional truth principles of Tension, Emotion, and Sensations. The time limit was 7 minutes.

Here is the lightly edited short story I wrote about the day I met my fiancé.

It was a beautiful clear blue sky spring day, I was on my way into NYC for my second speed dating event in two weeks. The first one ended in disaster, crash and burn.

Buzz buzz.

I check my phone, the location has changed. Now, instead of taking the R train straight into 34th street and walking for a couple of minutes, I have to take the R to the N express train. I take that into 14th street, transfer to the L over to the east side of Manhattan. Then the 1/2/3 uptown to 34th street, all to avoid that long and boring walk crosstown.

FINE!

I weave around the subway system, get out of the subway, pull out my phone to find this new location, and BAM! I drop my phone and crack my screen. Son of a B!&(@.

Should I just turn around and leave, forget this day happened, and try again another time.

I press on. I find my stride, turn a corner and there it is. You have got to be kidding me. Trump Tower! Come on, can this get any worse.

FINE!

I walk in, no one is there. Is this some kind of sick prank? Am I really destined to be alone forever?

I glide over to the bar, order a beer, find a dark quiet corner, and wait. I take a sip. People start to stroll in. Not bad, some cuties are walking in.

And there she is, damn she’s fine!

The event starts, I gravitate to the dark hair dark-eyed beauty and sit, we chat.

OH NO!

The host is glaring at me, I sat in the wrong seat to start. As I am being ushered to my proper seat, I protest “But I just found out we went to high school together!”

Now I have to endure meeting 9 other women who I have no interest in talking with. I kept sneaking a peek, is she enjoying the conversation with someone else? Did I just miss my chance?

We finally met back up and promised each other to stay after the event ended to talk some more.

We shared some popcorn, met an unsavory duo at the bar, and chatted the night away.

It was indeed love at first sight.

A 20 Year Journey: Love at first sight