The night I met the famous guy didn’t start out magically. But it did flow. A girlfriend reached out later in the day to see if I wanted to go out. Sure, I didn’t have plans and it’s guaranteed to be a fun night with this particular friend. We went to a rooftop bar and were standing and catching up on life. Two guys seated at the bar kept staring, and not smoothly. I said to my gf, “those guys won’t stop looking at us.” (I later learned that he heard me say that). In my head, I was wondering if I had matched with one of them on an app and maybe he thought I looked familiar.

The seats next to them, at the bar, opened up and we took them. We were still in our own world until the woman next to me spilled her glass of water into my chair. It was a total ice (water) breaker! My jeans were soaked and everyone, the two guys included, sprung into action. It was all fine and funny and that’s when our worlds connected. When we all introduced ourselves, I finally realized who he was. He was a famous athlete. But why was he staring at me? Typically, the roles would be reversed.

Note to self: when someone tells you, “you’re the whole package,” it doesn’t mean that they are too.

There was a new bar that had just opened up at a hotel nearby, and we all decided to go. As soon as we got there, we went up to the rooftop. It was all feeling very surreal. After getting our drinks, he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me away from the group. We walked over to the edge and stared out over the city. He asked me, “why did I meet you now? When everything is such a mess.” He began sharing a lot of struggles he was wrestling with.

He and I found a cabana to sit in and talked for a long time. We were in our own private world up there and I had early on in our conversation forgotten “who,” he is and was loving getting to know this man. Our friends had gone downstairs to the main bar and were eventually texting us to join them. We took the elevator down to the packed bar, which was such a contrast from our quiet sanctuary. Everyone was coming up to him, and he was gracious sharing his energy with every.single.person. Thankfully, the crowds at the bar were quickly enough for him, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. It was like a movie. We had been talking about wanting to find a place to go dancing. I am not sure which is more rare: meeting a famous athlete or meeting a man who wants to go dancing. This was incredible! He looked at me and asked, “do you trust me?” I easily said yes. He shared that he had a bar at his place and we could dance there.

The night continued to unfold magically as it had been my long-time desire, ever since seeing Coyote Ugly, to dance ON a bar. We danced and talked for hours. When we were later saying goodbye, he asked for my number, and put it in his phone.

Note to Self: when someone you really like asks for your number, ask for theirs too.

We made tentative plans for later in the weekend. Then I didn’t hear from him or see him for…THREE YEARS. Like most people, I really don’t like feeling confused. It was such an incredible connection and then…NOTHING. Again, for THREE YEARS. It didn’t make sense, but I moved forward after that first weekend of hearing nothing. Still puzzled. But still moving forward.

Fast forward THREE YEARS. I am out at the same rooftop bar, where this story first began, with a group of local friends and my best friend, who was in town visiting. I am looking around and I see HIM. As I have no poker face, she knew immediately that something had happened. I didn’t want everyone at the table to know, so I mouthed to her WHO was WHERE. She turned around and saw him. She told me I better go talk to him. Maybe I was exaggerating when I said I only wondered about him that first weekend. I actually wondered intermittently for years, and she had heard all of the times I ever wondered. My heart was racing and I shook my head at her, like no, I can’t do that. She looked at me and basically said, if you don’t go the “f” over there, I will. Again, she had heard me, for years, talk about this guy. So major props to her for the tough love in that moment.

Heart racing, I walked over to his table. He looked at me and warmly said, “hey, I know you from…” where I answered, “your house.” And then, like a scene from a movie, he said that he had put my number in his phone wrong and had stopped by my place so many times, but I was never home. I was floored. Wow. I told him I had moved since then, and he asked for my number again. I watched him put it in his phone and he texted me immediately. We kept in touch lightly, for years, and he would stop by when in town. Now it has been awhile and I have since moved. My main takeaway is that you never know what kind of sparkly night can happen. I think pure motives are key. Times I have gone out hoping for a connection like this, or a magical night, it really hasn’t happened. Times I am just psyched to have time with my friends, I have had experiences like this or, at the very least, sore abs from laughing so hard. And that is also the best feeling. XO