We met on Sullivan's Island, outside of Charleston, SC. It was late at night and my friend was having a pool party. I think my brother knew Claire through her visits to see her sister, Anna, so he called her up and we met up in downtown Charleston (she was with a guy who she claims she wasn't seeing at the time--I'm not sure if he felt that way--it certainly didn't appear that way). Anyhow, we ended up in the backseat next to each other in a car packed with hooligans on the way to the pool party. Once there, before we had said so much as a few words to each other, I asked her if she wanted to jump in the pool together (much to the other guys' dismay, she said yes). Before we could even really stop to think, we grabbed each others hand and jumped in the pool. This part of the story does not have a happy ending, however, as my date arrived shortly, thereafter.

The looks she gave Claire were not what I would call 'kindhearted.'

Claire left town (she was living in Athens at the time) and I figured I wouldn't see her again. She remained on my mind, though. A few months later, she came back into town, this time for a good friend's 30th birthday. We chatted briefly but it felt a bit awkward. I didn't think she liked me much after the last run-in. The night went OK--we didn't speak much, but again, I kept thinking about her.

The next day, our friends congregated again at Sullivan's Island. Specifically, a popular bar called Home Team. Now (and this is still a point of contention), Claire says that she approached me and struck up the conversation; I, however, maintain that it was I who approached her. For the purpose of this story, we'll just agree that a conversation was struck. Shortly thereafter, we decided to leave the group at the bar for a bit and take the short walk to the beach by ourselves for a dip. While there, our conversation wandered all over but we both gradually got a feeling for who each other was. I worked up the courage to ask her for her number and she (grudgingly) obliged.

The rest is, as they say, history. Rather, history in the making...