Hisstory

It all began in a gay bar in Seattle when my friend Shams came up from California to visit and we were having a night on the town. It was there that we made the acquaintance of our friend Sinem who had come to the US all the way from Turkey.

Fast forward a year and I had moved to Sunnyvale, California with my partner in crime Chewie and we were living the life of unapologetic bachelors with clothes, food and miscellaneous toys (both human and dog) strewn all over our little one bedroom apartment. Little did I know, just on the other side of town, love was waiting to find me.

One night in SF I was staying with my uncle and aunt Kabeer and Ena when Shams called up and asked if I wanted to hang out. I invited him over to their place and he came by with none other than Sinem and some of her girlfriends. It turned out that she had recently moved down to California and was celebrating a certain someone’s birthday. Had I gone outside to meet them our story might have started a lot sooner (or ended, I was a little drunk). That however was not meant to be the day we met as she didn’t accompany Sinem into the house and instead went home with her sister.

Then, out of the blue, I get a call from Shams inviting me for a Napa wine tasting trip with a bunch of friends. I was reluctant because Chewie was still only 6 months old and I had nobody to watch him but at the last minute I made the best decision of my life and decided to go. When I arrived at our rendezvous point at the Target parking lot in Vallejo I found that the friends Shams had mentioned included none other than Sinem who had brought someone very special with her. Shams being Shams introduced me with, “This is Arjun, he has a Corvette, who want’s to ride with him?”. I looked into the car and got my first glimpse of Dinara but she was in shades and packed in with three other girls into the back seat and once again was to elude me. The offer was accepted not by her but by her friend Su.

We arrived in Napa and the stage was set, beautiful weather, bountiful wine and the most romantic scenery you could ask for. It was there, at long last that we met and our story began. Everything from that moment onwards just flowed as if to make up for all the missed connections in the past. Time and time again we found ourselves alone, sitting on the lawn drinking champagne, or strolling side by side through beautiful gardens and plucking fruits from the trees. It was as if there was nobody else there but for the two of us and before we knew it, it was time to leave the wineries. It was then that we discovered that we lived in the same city, that we knew all the same people and had almost met on so many occasions. I must also thank Chewie for playing his part because if not for him we may not have ended up sharing the ride back to Sunnyvale together and discovering even more how much we enjoyed each other’s company. Of course it was Chewie who sealed the deal by utterly charming Dinara and also being the pretext for our second date.

We came to Napa as two people looking for nothing more than a good time but we left as soul mates.

Herstory

I came to California to continue my education from beautiful Kyrgyzstan half way around the world. I enrolled at the US Berkeley extension where I met my best friend Ozlem and we bonded over the trials of hard studyingJ. Ozlem came from Turkey and we had such a good time together. If you know Ozlem then you know that her bright personality attracts many good people and she is always surrounded by friends. She introduced me to her friends Su, Sinem, Alex, Alyshia, Ozge, and Suna.

One beautiful August day we decided to go to Napa Valley to taste some wine along with some friends Sinem and Ozlem had invited. It was August 25, 2012, the day was warm and I was surrounded by my friends and good wine, what else could you wish for? Of course Prince Charming!!!!

My prince Charming amazed me at once with his brilliant sense of humor, making joke after joke which lead to us talking. During the conversation I mentioned that something was wrong with my phone and I had lost my data connection. He offered to take a look at it and after a careful inspection he fixed it right there… Later on I figured that there is nothing that he cannot do.

We went to another winery but we had been so lost in talking that it was already 4 pm and the tasting counter outside of this place was closed. Then I saw Arjun approaching with two white wines in his hands because he always knows how to get what he wants.

We walked, talked and explored each other, everything about him was wildly interesting to me. He said that he needed to go soon because he had to walk his dog, I thought, what a responsible and caring person. He asked where do I live, I replied that I live in Sunnyvale. What a surprise it was that we lived a few miles from each other! I asked him if he didn’t mind driving me home (yes, yes, technically I asked him first).

The two hour drive back from Napa was more like 2 mins and we talked about everything, cars, the universe, education, quantum physics… We reached Sunnyvale and I did not want to say good bye which was when he offered to walk his dog together! And that was when I met this little, furry, resilient puppy with a wiggly tail, the most adorable puppy I’d ever seen. That was checkmate… He stole my heart (A tip for my single friends: a dog will melt heart of every girl).

During our drive back I mentioned that I play tennis and Arjun asked for my phone number and offered to play tennis some time. He called me exactly one hour after he left me at home and asked if I would like to go to the dog park tomorrow and walk Chewie.

The next day we walked Chewie, met Shams, Sinem and Ozlem, went to the shopping mall with them, drove to Fremont, picked up food, had dinner at Sham’s house, dropped Ozlem in Berkeley and probably would have invented a reason to go to the moon in order not to be parted… And every day since has been much the same.

P.S. While having dinner at Sham’s place, we enjoyed good company, delicious food and Turkish coffee followed by fortune telling. Sinem read my coffee grounds for me and said she saw a bird, happiness and travelling. Note Arjun’s nose, he is my bird, he is my happiness. Like Russian people say “я поймала птицу счастья за хвост”  (I caught my lucky bird by the tail).