Story
Even though the first time Neel and I met was in a small group of friends, we barely spoke. A few months later, we bumped into each other again, but nothing exciting happened. Months later, Neel invited one of his best friends to San Diego for the weekend, this friend happens to be my sister’s now husband. I almost bailed.
Neel spent the entire weekend flirting with me like crazy. After an amazing weekend with family and friends, Neel asked me to text him when I got home, and we have talked every day since. Turns out, I accidentally left my shirt at his place, and he swears I did it on purpose so I'd have to go back.
We both claimed we didn't want a serious thing, but we had a blast just hanging out. For six months, I'd drive to San Diego for long weekends with Neel, just as "friends." Neel always says these weekends felt like vacation, they totally did. We drunk scootered our way through downtown San Diego to every top-rated restaurant and speakeasy, still just as friends.
Even though everyone around us thought we were kidding ourselves, we aimed to keep our connection simple and lighthearted. Then one day, Neel invited me to breakfast and told me he thought I might be his person and he wanted to see where we could go. I already liked him more than a friend, but I wasn't ready to admit it. Spoiler alert: didn't take me long. I'd already been planning to move to San Diego the year before, so the timing was spot on. Now, looking back, it feels like all this happened both yesterday and a million years ago.