Fifteen Stories: Unlikely First Meetings

Stories of first encounters — from awkward to downright rude — that led to something more.

By Nerve Readers

I didn’t know what she looked like before I had sex with her. A friend I'd been sleeping with asked me to come over one night. He also mentioned that this girl would be there and she would probably be up for a threesome. He and I had floated the idea for a while, but we hadn't found the right person.

When I got to his apartment, there was this hot girl sitting on his couch and the men’s Canada vs. Finland hockey game was on TV. Ten minutes later I was under both of them, feeling out how three people making out works. A frenzy of stripping ensued, and we all tried to pile on his twin bed. Crazy acrobatic sex followed. The guy I had been sleeping with felt a little bit left out because this girl and I were more interested each other than in him. I left that night knowing very little more than her name and her love for hockey.

The next day I got her phone number and we started texting like mad, it turned out that we had a lot in common. She lit up my world like nobody I had met before. A few months later we were going steady, though we couldn’t tell a whole lot of people how we met. We had a year of blissful sex and Star Wars jokes before it ended. — Amanda

I'm really shy and in the past have relied heavily on alcohol to make friends in bars and at parties. So when one of my only friends invited me to her best friend's birthday party, and told me the party was completely dry — the birthday girl was a Mormon — I panicked. I went, brought a gift for the birthday girl I'd never met, and braced myself for a lot of sober, stilted, awkward conversations. In place of kegs and red Solo cups, there was a table of candies and baked goods. After being abandoned by the one girl I knew, I spent most of my time hanging around there. That's when I met Tom.

He was also shy, and didn't know anyone but the birthday girl. We started talking, and then things became more comfortable, and slowly but surely things started to get fun. We had so much in common and he was so funny — I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun, completely sober. So as it turns out, I met my boyfriend of two-plus years at a Mormon birthday party. — Alexandra 

When I was working as a waitress, I knocked the lid off a pitcher and spilled its contents on my patron’s lap. I frantically applied napkins to the drenched area — which he apparently “liked” despite the icey coldness. He was laughing the entire time and left me a $20 tip and his phone number. I was so embarrassed that I never called him, but he continually returned — always asking for me and always leaving a large tip and his number. Persistence pays off — I eventually called him, and we dated for about fifteen months. — Jamay 

His personals ad in the newspaper said "I'm kind of an asshole. I think it's funny when people get mad." And I called him anyway. And then married him. — Erica 

We’d been friends in high-school, until he moved away before junior year. The summer after, I went to visit Boston on a college trip, and stayed at his house. He had two beds in his room — I brought a Nalgene bottle of vodka (oh, high school). We got drunk, got into separate beds for about ten minutes, before he came over and joined me. I’d had my suspicions, but we’d never fooled around before. He gave me head enthusiastically for about five or six minutes and then, as I was getting close, gagged and puked all over my chest. In a testament to my teenage libido, we just got in the shower and jerked each other off. In a testament to my ability to forgive, we dated for a year when I moved to Boston for college. — Nick

Apparently, I’d met Katie a hundred times — we grew up in the same town and my cousin was her best friend — but I never remembered her. One night, at a party, I overheard her telling someone that her favorite food was "sandwiches." I walked over — not thinking we’d ever met — and told her that was stupid. “Sandwiches are not a food; they’re a category of food." We ended up getting in a surprisingly heated argument about it, which ended with her saying, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree” and me responding “No. I don’t agree. Unless you’d eat a shit sandwich, what you’re saying is stupid." I didn’t even realize I was at a party at her house. She blew up and stormed off. Upshot: I remembered her this time. We’ve been together for three years. — Mike 

It might be the worse line ever used: “Hey, my friend really likes Canadian guys," But I was at a bar in Thailand by myself, waiting for a date who, it seemed, wasn’t going to show up. I nodded and he sauntered over. “What makes you think I’m Canadian?” I asked. “I don’t — but American boys usually find that flattering.” I told him I lived in Hong Kong, and he looked taken aback. “Where?” I named a neighborhood. “Oh shit, me too. So much for a fling in a foreign country.” He left a card and walked off. I was annoyed, but intrigued enough by his reckless transparency that I called him when I was back in HK. It didn’t hurt that he was cute. We ended up dating for a year. — Ben

On my morning subway ride, I’d noticed a guy staring at me. He always looked bleary-eyed, like he was coming off a bender, and a little scruffy. He made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but honestly, it was just one more thing in the sea of annoyances that is commuting. After about a month, he came over and said hi... and it turned out we’d gone to high school together, and he’d been mustering the courage to re-introduce himself. Once he said hi, I remembered him and remembered thinking he was cute — apparently, he just wasn't a morning person. I gave him my number, and that was that. — Natasha