The Starbucks Run That Led To True Love

For this month's Love In A Small Town feature, we asked Patch readers to tell us the story behind their romantic chance encounters. This is Lauren Grady's story:

“If anyone had ever told me I’d meet the love of my life serendipitously, I‘d have laughed and said it only existed in Hollywood rom-coms. And yet, it happened.

I had been living on the south shore of Long Island, and had been hard pressed to find any places my dog could swim, except for the small dog beach in Port Jefferson.

On July 6, 2014, I had planned to take my dog Audrey swimming at the dog beach in Port Jefferson and asked a friend of mine to join us. Audrey and I arrived at my friend’s place early, and he happened to be ready early. Upon parking the car in Port Jeff, my friend and I agreed to get breakfast at Tiger Lily, which was closed. We opted for Starbucks instead.

My friend went in to order coffee and breakfast, and I waited outside with Audrey. While we waited, a blue Volvo pulled up and time stopped when I saw the man who got out of the car. He was so unbelievably handsome. He approached and asked if he could pet my dog. We chatted for a few moments and he went in to order his coffee. Somehow, he re-emerged from Starbucks before my friend did, and re-engaged me in conversation.

While we were talking, a woman approached us and started asking questions about Audrey, at which point the handsome stranger thanked me for my time and left. No name, no phone number, nothing. My friend came out and noticed I was visibly bummed. I told him what happened with my mysterious stranger. Our day went on. The dog swam. We went home. Still, the mysterious stranger was on my mind.

Two weeks went by, and still I thought about the stranger. On a Sunday night around midnight, I was scrolling through my phone when a Facebook message popped up. ‘Hi, my name is Tim. I think you’re the cute girl with the cool dog I met in front of Starbucks. I saw you tagged in a post with a mutual friend of ours. I recognized your smile.’ We chatted and arranged a date.

Almost four years later, we are engaged and getting married later this year, and we couldn’t be happier we both happened to be at Starbucks that day. We took some of our engagement photos in the same spot we met with the ‘cute dog’ that helped bring us together.”

—Lauren Grady

See all Patch "chance encounters" here.

For next month's Love In A Small Town feature, we want to help you give Mom the best Mother's Day gift ever. Write her a heartfelt letter to tell her how much she means to you, email it to locallove@patch.com and we'll feature it in your town's newsfeed on Mother's Day. Get more details here.

Image Credit: Lauren Grady