It started out as Friday nights often do, with a few spontaneous decisions. Shawnee had gotten her homework done early and had been convinced to leave the house, and James decided at the last minute to go out for a few hours before catching a flight out of the country for a work trip. Both ended up at a game night hosted by a mutual friend, expecting nothing more than a night of drinks and disappointments. However, Shawnee caught a glimpse of silver hair and a soft smile sitting alone and decided with her whole person that she HAD to go and chat up the mysterious stranger in the corner.
James was immediately charmed by Shawnee's quick smile and her even quicker quips, while Shawnee found James's humor and wit to be just as beguiling, and, ugh, those blue eyes! Their conversation, somehow simultaneously flirtatious and intellectual, was enough to leave them both elated and yet a bit confused as to whether the other felt the same. It took the well-timed interruption of an astute bartender (who, unlike the pair, had recognized the mutual attraction a mile away!) to get the two of them to exchange numbers with the promise that yes, they would, in fact, see each other again.
James and Shawnee spent most of the next two months getting to know each other at a distance. James made time to video-call nearly every day during his work trips, and Shawnee couldn't help but smile at the end of a long day of clinical rotations at the hospital, when she'd see his face pop up on her screen. The courtship, if it could be called that, was quite the opposite of a whirlwind. But, by the end of those two months, Shawnee had been swept off her feet, and James was busy telling anyone who would listen that he'd met someone who made him feel things he'd never felt before.
Built on a foundation of friendship, trust and vulnerability, the two made their relationship official and the rest, as they say, is history!