So How Did You Meet?

We asked for your “meet cute” stories—real life experiences of a future couple meeting under strange or comical circumstances. The kind of setup you normally only see in a romantic movie. Below we share two of our favorite submissions.

–Kathy Knotts

Criminally Cute

I had just moved to Washington D.C. from Michigan for a job with the federal government. It was my second week of work, on a Monday in November. There was something going on with Metro and there were hundreds of people crammed on to the platforms shoving to get on trains. I decided to earn some good karma and I waited for several trains to board and the platforms to clear before I got on. This was still a new experience for me, so when I got off at my stop I called a friend back home to tell her about it as I walked back to my apartment building. When I got to my building we hung up and I checked my mail. I didn’t realize I had set my phone down and I proceeded up to my apartment.

I changed into sweats and ran a load of laundry down to the laundry room in the basement of the building. I was looking not so cute. About 2 minutes after I got back to my apartment I heard BANG BANG BANG on the door. 

“Who is it?”

“POLICE!!!”

So, of course, I opened the door and there in front of me was the most handsome officer in uniform. He told me I had left my phone in the lobby and gave it back to me. Apparently Angela at the front desk had told him someone found it and he helped her call the last number and find out who it belonged to. I thanked him, and as he left he told me to use the peephole and not open my door for just anyone.

I decided I needed to find out more about him, so I ran down to switch my laundry with the intent to stop by the front desk and inquire. But when I got out of the stairwell, he was at the front desk talking to Angela. So I hurried back to my apartment and hatched a master plan.

I ran to a store and grabbed some quick ingredients to whip up a batch of no-bake peanut butter oatmeal cookies. About an hour later, I took a plate of cookies down to the front desk. The handsome police officer was nowhere in sight. I thanked her for making sure I got my phone back and gave her the cookies. Then I proceeded to fish for information about the officer. It turned out that he lived in the building and had just been getting home from shift. I asked Angela to please save a cookie for the officer and returned to my apartment not expecting anything else that evening.

Five minutes later: BANG BANG BANG on the door. I recognized that knock! I hurried to the door and whipped it open, right into my big toe, which proceeded to bleed profusely. Officer Anthony had changed into civilian clothes and was standing at my door with my empty plate and cookie crumbs on his face while I hopped up and down cursing about my toe. We had a short conversation and exchanged numbers and he went on his merry way.

I called my mom to tell her what had just transpired. About one minute into the conversation the call waiting beeped. It was Officer Anthony. He told me that he knew I had just moved in and I didn’t have any ice at my apartment for my toe, but if I wanted to stop by his apartment he had ice and wine.

Well, the ice was a lie, but we did have some wine, and later that week we spent Thanksgiving together, and the rest is history.

We just celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary in October.

–Karen J. Attardo, Chesapeake Beach

Casting Call for Leading Lady

I saw an ad on Facebook casting for a walk-on role in a local TV commercial. Though it had been ages since my brief stint at modeling, it looked fun (and I could use the money). I knew the guy who had placed the ad for the production company — we’d actually been introduced previously by a mutual friend who thought we should date, but the timing just wasn’t right. I got the part, playing half of a married couple.

When I got there, I learned that the person playing my other half was the very same guy I’d been introduced to months before.

I had no idea he’d be in the commercial, I only knew he worked for the company. I remembered him as being attractive, but I was nearly in a puddle when I saw him that day. He was beyond handsome, wicked sharp, and terribly funny. I was absolutely smitten with my onscreen husband.

A few days after the shoot had wrapped I was still thinking about him. I thought “why wait?” and so I asked him out.

We are now engaged, and are celebrating our 5-year anniversary in May.

Back then, he had told me that the director had cast me.  The director would later tell me that he had actually considered going with someone else, but Conor was really pushing for it to be me. Thank you, JR, for obliging.

–Rachel E. Bessman, Annapolis