Take a chance on me

Jessie asked: How did you meet?

Back before such a thing was commonplace, we met through online gay and lesbian personals. We both posted profiles on PlanetOut (back when it was the place to be surfing…not like it is now), and I responded to Nutella’s ad. She had a cute picture posted, and what I saw was a soft butch with a great smile, short brown hair and a plain white t-shirt. What she saw (and I’m cringing as I write this) was “a goofy picture where you were leaning over a chair” lol. Personally I thought it was a nice picture, but apparently it didn’t come off the way I wanted. Anyway, we chatted via IM for a week during work hours, since we both were in front of a computer 8 hours a day. Nutella told me she was performing 7 shows a week at a dinner theatre, which made meeting in person a bit challenging. We also happened to live about an hour apart…each of us living 30 minutes outside of our shared city, but in opposite directions.

We flirted some online and got along pretty well. Nutella said she found me really easy to chat with, and while I found her to be REALLY open and “out there”, I was intrigued. We decided to pick a public place to meet, and ending up making a brunch date in the city. She had an evening performance later in the day. Apparently her friends all thought she was crazy and warned her to be careful because no one is truthful about who they are online. I remember her standing outside the restaurant when I arrived. She was WAY more feminine than she had advertised…wearing a turqoise low cut v-neck shirt and carrying a little sparkly purse. She told me later that she had just cut inches of her hair off since she was wearing a wig in her show. Thankfully, I’m more into feminine women anyway so I was happily surprised. She told me I was way cuter than my picture- ha! And she always had a thing for redheads.

We had a great brunch…talked non-stop, although there were mimosas present 🙂 Our conversation just flowed so easily and both of us were sad when we had to part. However, we each had plans that same night to go out with friends and it just so happened we were going to the same club (although that’s not much of a surprise when you consider the lack of lesbian hangouts in our city). Our brunch date ended with nothing but the expectation of seeing each other later that night…no hug or anything (how sad!). I think it was nerves.

Fast foward several hours, and I remember sitting in the lounge area of the club watching the staircase that led up to the room…when in she walked. She bought me a drink and we alternated between cozying up on the couch in the lounge and dancing. At some point near the end of the night, I asked if I could kiss her and she said “Sure!” I can still remember the way that kiss felt over 6 years later. It was a chilly night and we walked to Nutella’s car arm in arm. One more kiss goodbye through her open driver’s side window and the rest is history!