We have known each other through mutual friends for a number of years. However, neither of us were at a place in our lives where we looked at each other any way other than acquaintances. He moved away from Alaska a couple years ago but came back periodically for his job. When he did our small group of friends would get together, but out of everyone we talked the least. He finally came back from deployment and decided to move back to Anchorage. We had a welcome back party for him and we connected. We went on a date the next night and have been together ever since. The first few months we spent only a couple weeks together, but we talked all of the time and our relationship grew through that.