Written by Katia, October 2000

Everything started when I began my first job at a shopping center (I am still work there today).
I do need to say that ever since this megastore opened, my mother and I always shopped there and I never saw Max! I knew his colleague but not him ... destiny for sure!
I was hired on June 1st 1993 but only in July I would meet the man that would change my life! One day, while he was going to his department, he had to pass in front of my station (that was the only way to get to his dept.), he saw me working at the cash register station line 2 and found a way to have someone send me to his dept with the excuse of helping him clean. Unaware of it all, I gladly went to help out and when I arrived and inquired about Max he raised his head from what he was doing and he had such a big smile on his face that left me with my mouth open... He had (and still has) a dimple in his cheeks that I believe I fell in love with at that very moment!!
His sense of humor and good spirits totally swept me off my feet and I could not wait to go to work to see him and talk to him. The idea of my shift to be over and that I had to go home and, worse, I had to see my fiancèe again, made me nauseous. But... that is another story that I prefer not to remember.

That summer the company we worked for had organized a pool party. I wanted to go but my fiancèe was against it. Secretly I went anyway, and it was such a wonderful party, and I probably enjoyed it more because of everything I did to go to it! That evening I talked to Max a lot, and one question he asked me was how my fiancèe was... I swear I was not prepared and I did not say it in purpose, but what came right out of my mouth was that he was a big "....." (cuss word).

I believe Max liked that answer a lot, and we ended the evening dancing, talking and laughing. I had not had such a good time in a very long time.
He followed me home to make sure I made it okay and for the following several days we talked a lot and about everything. He then left for Poland on vacation and it was only then that I realized how much he meant to me, how much I missed him, how much I was in love with him, and that I had enough of my fiancèe. More and more I was convinced that there was something wrong with his psyche, he had a strange attitude about everything, and above all, he did not act like the person in love like he was declaring he was. The turning point was a postcard that I received from Max in which he wrote "I like you " or " I love you".
Upon his return I organized an evening to spend with him and two friends. It was September 7, 1993, and after he told me in the car that my fiancèe would never change, that, if anything, he would get worse, because that is how he was, I threw my arms around him and they are still there! Four days later I broke up with my fiancèe and I began my relationship with Max. To be with him was like being in paradise, quite a change from all the heartache I had endured from my ex... The experience however made me understand what to expect from a relationship and thank God now I could experience it!
Just as it was, it is today, I am happy, satisfied, in love, and this is also true for Max. We are truly two twin spirits that have found each other. Obviously we get angry and we argue at times (I say this even though he is amused when I get angry, so he might do it in purpose...we never truly argued) like everyone, but the most beautiful thing between Max and I is that we laugh so much together...

At times I am astonished by the fact that Max and I are always home and we never really go anywhere... It is now seven years that we are together and we're still not tired of each other!!! Actually, we are anxiously awaiting the fruit of out love... we hope soon to receive this special gift.
You want to know how he asked me to marry him? Always laughing and joking obviously. One evening at his home, 6 months after we started going out together, while we were having supper, this is what came out of his mouth: "But you would be so crazy to marry me? ". I remained a moment without words and then I said: "Well, I really think I could!! ". At that moment I took it as a joke and not gave it much importance, I was, however, enormously pleased he said that...so much I cannot describe, but in the end... it really happened!!!