Pierre and I first met in July 1989. (Wow- has it been that long?) There was this outdoors live concert and disco and I was there with some of my friends from high school. One year earlier I had had a crush on this guy –let’s simply call him L, and being in that age (you all remember what it was like to be 17, don’t you?) I had made sure I knew everything about L and his whereabouts, including his schedule in school, and I had monitored which friends he hung out with. And this summer evening I saw the friends L used to be with, at this outdoors event, but noticed there was another guy I had never recognized before. A tall, dark, handsome guy, and immediately I got curious to know who he was. This stranger probably spotted me through the crowd as well, because when the next ballad was played, he came up to me and asked me to dance! 
Never before have I experienced this kind of "love at first sight".

We chatted some throughout the dance; he told me his name was Pierre, that he currently was in the army and was a childhood friend of L. And for some strange reason I still can’t figure, I suddenly recognized him from our school’s photo catalogue, because my friend Petra once very briefly had pointed a guy out a year ago, that was dating one of her friends by then. Very strange coincidence, and I’m still surprised I remembered this small event at all…

Anyway… we had a good time together, danced a couple of dances and then the night was over and everybody went home to sleep. I remember getting home to check Pierre out in the catalogue, and showed it/him to my mother.
I didn’t see him at all for quite a while after that night.
-Pierre went back to the army and in the cabin on the boat over to the place he was stationed at, he said to his roommate that he had met the girl he was going to marry…!

Part two

Fast forward to March/April 1990.  My senior year in high school. One Wednesday night my friends and I were planning to go out to this place that had really good prices on everything just on Wednesday nights. Free entrance, cheap beer and drinks. We had gathered at my friend Caroline’s place before we went downtown, and for some reason Caroline and I began talking about this guy I had met 9 months earlier. I told her how nice I had thought he was, and that it was a pity I hadn’t seen him since that night in July. I jokingly said that if he happened to show up at the club we were on our way to, I’d go up and talk to him. I knew the chances of that happening were second to none, since we had been out to this place several times that spring, and not once had he been there.

You can probably guess what happened… My friends and I went to this club, and presto! -There he was..! Just out of nowhere. Caroline started laughing, and since I had promised her I’d go talk to him, I had to keep my promise. 
He was by the roulette table when I approached him with the question –“You’re Pierre, right?” I was just on my way to explain to him who I was, when he said that my name was Julia, and that I really was someone "you didn’t forget in the first place". 
He remembered me!!! We spent the night talking about anything and everything, and I felt really happy when I went home that night.
We kept seeing each other at the club a couple of Wednesdays that spring, and got to know each other better and better. Soon we were really good friends. 
 

-And what happened next? Read all about how we ended up as a couple, on next page!