It all began in the building where I worked. I was the property manager, and Ben was one of the residents, a quiet soul and a friend of a mutual acquaintance, though we had never spoken much before. Every so often, I would see him in the recreation area playing table tennis, calm and focused, completely in his own world. There was something about him, a peaceful energy, that always caught my eye.

Then one ordinary day, fate decided to intervene. We both happened to finish early from work. I had planned to stop for groceries, but at the last minute, I changed my mind and chose to take a walk through the mall instead, the only way to get to the other side of town.

At that same moment, Ben felt a quiet nudge to do something different too, to take the longer route through the mall just to pass time. He didn’t know why, but something told him to go that way.

And that’s where it happened.

I spotted him walking toward me, and without thinking, I smiled and said, “Hi.” That simple word turned into a conversation that lasted three hours, right there in the middle of the mall. We talked about everything and nothing at all, completely lost in the moment until the stores began to close around us.

Before parting ways, we took a picture together, just for fun, as if we both instinctively knew that moment was special. Looking back now, it feels like our hearts already recognized what our minds hadn’t yet realized, that we had found each other.

He walked me home that night, and we talked the whole way. By the time we reached my door, another two hours had flown by. We exchanged numbers, said goodnight, and from that day forward, everything just fell beautifully into place.

What began as two people taking the long way home became the beginning of a love story that changed our lives forever. The rest, as they say, is history.