My Online Valentine (Before Tinder)featured

I have always loved Valentine’s Day. My mom always made it as special as special can be. She will forever be my valentine, but one day long ago, a man stole my heart for the first time. He literally ripped it out my chest and never gave it back.

I was surfing the web while I was a Junior in high school. I had just left water polo practice and went on my MySpace.com account. For those of you who don’t know, MySpace came directly before Facebook. It was super similar minus all of the status updates.

Anyway, there I was online minding my own business… I was young, naive and had never had much attention from guys. A random messaged me and I thought he was a complete weirdo.

He told me he could sweep me off my feet, well, basically. He said he loved the outdoors and was always looking for an adventure. I can’t say he didn’t intrigue me for a second. He did and then he didn’t.

I continued living my life as constant messages poured into my MySpace inbox. Everything seemed harmless until one day my inbox showed up at my place of work, In n Out Burger.

I changed into my lazy clothes when I clocked out of work and received a text saying, “Hey, I was hungry so I decided to get a burger at In N Out.”

MySpace dude lived more than an hour away so I responded, “That’s nice.”

He let me know he had driven a little far to satisfy his craving. I walked through the restaurant and saw him standing at the soda machine. My heart dropped deep into my chest as I realized my online pen pal was more than gorgeous. I almost fainted when I looked into his emerald-green eyes.

The rest is pure history. He stole more than kisses from me throughout the years and enticed me with adventurous fun. I refused to officially date him until eight years later. Had I known how much more amazing he would be as a boyfriend, I would have given in years before but the timing was never right. He sometimes had a girlfriend and I always had some stupid guy around for no reason.

One day in 2012 I accidentally texted my estranged lover boy. I wanted to party and he wanted more. I gave in. I put my hand in his and trusted that he would never break my heart. To this day, he has kept his promise. To this day, he is the greatest love of my life. Thank God for bad timing and the internet. He is, and forever will be, my online valentine.

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