In case you ever wondered, this is Our Story:
Nico went to California in August 2003 to get an LLM degree in US Legal Studies at Golden Gate University. Along with him were his two friends, Anne and Francois, from Nanterre University in France. Francois had been the first to arrive and found a three bedroom flat in San Francisco's trendy Haight/Ashbury area.
The apartment the three rented ended up below the apartment JoAnn and her friend Sarah would move in three weeks later.
This is where it gets tricky. Officially, the two met on the first night JoAnn spent the night in her new apartment. She was moving her things in and Francois and another friend, Remi, were outside the apartment building having a cigarette. The two introduced themselves and called up so that Nico could say hello to the new neighbor. Nico briefly stuck his head out, said hi, and went back to playing video games.
Francois invited the girls to come downstairs and have a drink but having just moved in, they were exhausted and skipped out on drinks.
Two weeks later, JoAnn and Sarah decided to have a housewarming party. JoAnn went out and bought a huge stereo system for their first bachlorette-pad party. Once she picked up the equipment, she parked outside the apartment building and called up to Sarah to help. Nico was waiting outside the apartment building too, as he was waiting for Anne to pick him up so they could to the University together.
Upon seeing the two girls struggle to bring huge stereo speakers up to their third-floor flat, Nico offered to help. After dragging up the heavy boxes, Nico rushed off as Anne was waiting for him.
JoAnn and Sarah invited many people to their first house party, including all the tenants of their apartment building. Not wanting complaints for the noise and to socialize with the cute European boys downstairs, the doors to their flat were open for all partygoers.
Nico and JoAnn met formally at the party. And promptly debated for the next two (ok, three) hours. The main focus of their debate was a cook-off between Francois and JoAnn. The two neighbors decided that they would have group dinners altogether and then it turned into a contest on who would be the best cook.
Nico had volunteered to be the judge and when JoAnn objected, saying that he would surely vote for his own countryman, the debate (which STILL goes on today) started. Nico said that since his father was Italian, he was Italian. JoAnn, being of Filipino heritage but referred to herself as either American or Filipino American, disagreed since Nico had lives most of his life in France.
The two joked, insulted, debated...and flirted...for hours.
A week later, Nico and JoAnn went out with a group of friends dancing at a local club. After they all walked home, Nico and Jo stayed up until 5 am talking about their lives, what they feared, what they wanted, what meant the most to them.
At one point, Nico said to JoAnn that he didn't come the US to make friends. To which JoAnn relied, "Do you consider me a friend now?" Nico smiled and said yes.
When the sun started to peek through the windows, Nico went home.
Two weeks later, the two had their first official date. Nico suprised JoAnn by kissing her at a club in San Francisco while out with friends. JoAnn now says that she knew Nico was "The One" the first time he kissed her.
Three years to the date of that first kiss, Nico proposed to JoAnn in Paris.
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