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In high school, my friends used to gather around me after drama club rehearsals because I seemed to have a romantic story for every occasion. In all honesty, my high school romances were limited at best, but I had cool encounter stories. I had cool “how we met” stories about boys from other towns. I had big dreams. I had ideas about what relationships could be like. I never expected anything differently than that I would have a grand and sweeping and cinematic love story of my own.


I was 23 and only a few months into a new inside sales job. I was comfortable, in a somewhat dead-end relationship, and on somewhat dead-end accounts at work. It all changed one day, when a sales rep in another department was suddenly let go, and I was offered (forced into) his old position. I had a new office, new partner, new hours, and new California accounts.

He worked for a film company I LARGELY admire and I loved working with him, but knew nothing about him at all! I used to try to picture him. After a great working relationship, I was taken off of California accounts, so I could focus on Houston-based clients. That’s the day everything changed. Cassidy and I became friends. He sent me photos, and I sent him photos.

We fell in love through emails, and eventually, phone calls. It was wild and magical. I’d always hear amazing songs on the radio when I thought of him, and I couldn’t believe the chemistry we seemed to have. We decided to meet on the east coast, so he flew into JFK Airport and into my heart. I stood there in a crowd of people, and suddenly saw him right in front of me.

It was summer and we did youthful and dreamy things. We drove to The Hamptons to kiss on a beach. We drove to Maine to see moose. I flew to California and we whale watched, with dolphins and a shark. Time, youth, and distance got the best of us and we had a sudden break-up in the fall. Soon after the break-up, I realized the error of it all and did one last grand gesture of love to get him back, to no avail. I was heartbroken, deeply, and it took me a long time to heal. A year passed with no word.

Eventually I tried again, to no avail again. I moved on and fell in love again. Two years passed since I had last seen his face. I had a new love and life was good.. or was it? Cassidy called me on my 26th birthday, shattering all of the walls I had thought I had built. He only called to apologize for breaking my heart, but the chemistry was so undeniable. My world turned upside down and eventually we knew we had to be together, for real this time. I moved to California, we got married in Vermont, we moved back east to Massachusetts, and we started a family and bought a house. Sounds like a happily ever after, right?

The end of the story is just the beginning. It’s not just about how you met and began your lives together. It’s also about how you keep your story alive. How do you keep the story going? How do you keep your love as not only surviving, but thriving?

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Aw, love your story and not going to feel like I was blessed here how I met Kevin, too. And honestly, if someone would have told me how it all would have played out, I wouldn’t have believed them. But it did and we are the lucky ones, I believe truly! 🙂
Awesome! I love your story with Kevin. I love that we have stories to tell, and that they’re not over. XOXO
Love the story.
Tom and I plan to romance each other with chocolate and probably a movie comedy with foul language.
haha, I love you guys. That sounds perfect.
You have a beautiful story, Tamara! I met the woman I am with several years ago. I had a blind date with another woman, but she stood me up. I was all dressed up with no where to go. You’ve heard that nature abhors a vacuum? Well just a few minutes after I realized my “date” wasn’t coming, I met the date fate wanted me to have. I eventually met the other woman and thanked her for not showing 🙂
That is such a great story, Dr. J. Thank you so much for sharing.
Sometimes life has other plans, and they’re quite wonderful. Lucky you. Lucky her.
I love your love story! That is so sweet. And you are right about keeping the fire going! Thanks for sharing your story! -client
Thanks for reading my story! It’s always so awesome to share a love story.
Cute story! My love story is rather nerdy.. meeting in line for the midnight release of a video game either makes people awwww or raise an eyebrow. haha! <3 – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
Well, allow me to be someone who says, “Awwww!”
I’ve read your whole story and I definitely think it could be a great movie or novel! 🙂 Definitely more dramatic and romantic than me meeting a drunk guy at a bowling alley! HA! As for Valentine’s Day, I kind of hate it. Is that awful?
Not awful at all! A lot of people don’t like it. Or February, for that matter.
And your bowling alley story is awesome because look what it led to!
I love your love story. It’s true though that is only the beginning. At least if we want that love story to grow. I just heard today that my husband will be out of town on Valentines. Kind of a bummer, but there are other days to take advantage of and spend time together.
Aww.. that is a bummer! Not the end all, of course. Valentine’s Day is often.. littered with kids around here. It’s become a family holiday.
You have such a beautiful love story!
Thank you! I’m a big fan.
Your and Cassidy’s love story is so sweet. It’s fascinating. We have a pretty good one too. I love massage oils in the bedroom. I could use a nice back massage come to think of it. I will have to put my Beau to work 😉
That’s awesome. I hope you set him to work this weekend! I have no doubt that you have a pretty good story. Or pretty great.
I love your story – love it! I am a romantic dreamer at heart too, and God gave me my prince. We’ve been married for over 15 years, and it seriously keeps getting better.
That is so awesome. 7.5 years here. So we have half of the life span of your marriage! May we all grow older and wiser together.
I just loved the story of how the two of you met. The two who met through emails and letters and phone calls. My story is nowhere near as enchanting. BTW I haven’t used KY in ages but maybe it might spark things up a little here. 🙂
I think all love stories are enchanting!
And sparks are good.
Hi Tamara, I can see why your friends enjoyed listening to your stories, as you tell them well. It’s a lovely story and you and Cassidy were obviously meant to be together and it’s up to the two of you to make that story last a lifetime. Adding a little spice to the relationship is always a winner!
I love your photos and would have loved to see you getting a snap of the K.Y. Touch!
xx
And… THERE YA GO AGAIN! Teasing me to read the epic love story of ALL TIME!!! Dammit, I’m going to DO IT. I am… And can I just say I giggled at the end of your poetic piece, as I looked at the images of the various KY products? I totally did. lol
HAH! You’re cracking me up. It’s a massage creme, I swear! It even smells good.
I think I’ll spend Valentine’s Day reading your love story.
I love your story too. Also you did an awesome job with this post. The photo of Cassidy jumping at your wedding is amazing!!
That’s one of my favorite photos in existence!
I just love reading about you and Cassidy- true love!
For some reason I got to the end of your post, read date, Valentines, KY and thought, Netflix and Chill…
Loved the photos of you and Cassidy too!!
XOXO
ha! I can get behind that. Jessica Jones is Netflix, right? And some popcorn..
Over the Christmas break I got hooked on a show called Reign that’s about Mary Queen of Scots. All during the two seasons that I watched on netflix, I kept thinking of how much you look like the actress that plays Mary. Especially, in the photo that you sent Casiddy when you guys first became friends. Here is a link with photos with the actress who reminded me of you https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrTHQixvqJWK3wA_C1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0NjZjZzZhBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=reign+tv+show&fr=mcafee&fr2=piv-web
You just made my weekend with that comment! I would love to look like her!
Thank you so much for being so honest and open about your love story. It’s amazing! Hope you two have a wonderful Valentine’s Day in just a few weeks. #client
It was really fun to get to talk about this again. Thank you! I’m getting more excited for Valentine’s Day.
I love that story. Mine isn’t as fascinating. He was my boss. I chased him down and let him catch me after I stopped working for him. 😉
Any story that begins with two people managing to find love with one another is miraculous in my book!
Swiped right. Yep. That’s our story…
HA! In a very very very tiny nut shell….. But lets be real, that nut shell is broken because our story is like an EPIC NOVEL. BUT SERIOUSLY.
So I’ve started to hear! I’m happy for you both.
And I can’t imagine why anyone would swipe by either of you.
I always like the stories where the first time around didn’t turn out as planned, only for our lives to fall into place the second time around. Same thing happened to me! I met my husband one night, but didn’t have a way to contact each other. Didn’t see him for two weeks, then saw him again randomly. This time we made sure to get each others’ numbers!
That’s such a cute story! I wonder if you both would have kept wondering about each other, if not for seeing each other again.
At least you never have to find out.
Loved your love story/reality and pictures!! I can see why your stories were so popular in high school 🙂
I love your love story/reality and pictures!! I can see why your stories were so popular in high school 🙂
One of these days, I’ll have to tell my high school romance story. It’s completely ridiculous but it’s why I am the way I am!
I love hearing your love story and am happy you both found each other! There is nothing so great as finding your soul mate!
It’s really amazing. I hope I do enough to honor our story over the years. I feel like I have a lot of work to do.
I can vividly remember your love story and it was amazing! It has been quite some time since my husband and I had a date night outside but we are always together in the house these days, since I stopped working.
Aha! Say no more. I think that arrangement sounds very nice.
You seriously have one of the most amazing, crazy, intense how-we-met love stories! When do I get to see the movie version of it? 😉
I don’t know but I hope you do! And I hope Anne Hathaway plays me.
You have such a beautiful love story and I’m so glad you have a blog to share it with the world :)! My husband and I met in 9th grade and got married eight years later, after many ups and downs and ups. Even after 25 married years we still have great chemistry, so I think we were meant to be!
I love that story so much! Thank you for sharing it.
I have always been SUCH a fan of your love story!! It needs to be adapted to a movie, or maybe a book first. I’ll have Chris Hemsworth play your hubby and Rachel McAdams play YOU. It would be pretty awesome. 🙂
I like that! I was thinking Anne Hathaway for me. I do love Chris Hemsworth and so does Cassidy.
I love your love story and these pictures are the SWEETEST! That whole year passing with no word WAS heartbreaking. I never finished reading the your love story series because my heart was broken. I can’t even remember now how I got it on my Kindle but it’s still there. I need to get back to it. So did you set up a tripod in the woods or was someone there?
P.S. I don’t see the comment thing on your most recent post.
Oh the thrill of the new beginnings!! Discovery!! Deep sighs and melting hearts. It’s amazing – that hook sets deep. But it’s true that all that does fade, and keeping the spark is hard once children and mortgage enter the picture. I wrote naughty poems and stories that I DO NOT publish on my blog. 😉
Some things are not for sharing with y’all. ha.
Also, I bet we would have got in a ton of trouble had you met me on your way through Canada. Cause I got stories. Oh…. the stories I could tell. I love those moments of random that turned out to be so important and so special you didn’t even know how to explain to a friend. I bet you would have “got” it. 🙂
Awww…you guys have in incredibly beautiful love story. Sounds like a fairy tale.
Talk about the cliff notes version of your love story! You told it so beautifully in the longer version. But you’re right that keeping a marriage alive is hard work. It doesn’t take much if you’re lucky; but it’s important to let your spouse know how much you care. Even if it’s just for a few minutes a day.