We were at a mutual friend's party. Jeremy comes over and "joins" a conversation that I'm having with a friend. After introductions, I proceeded to be curt with him and disregard his attempt to be friendly, so he decided to chat with my friend. (Note: I do vaguely remember a rude guy at the alleged party interrupting a conversation and ignoring me to flirt with my friend. I plead the fifth on my behavior towards him.)

I went out dancing with friends. I was being introduced to a group of people when Jeremy chimes in and says, "Ohhh, you're the girl who threw that murder mystery party for your birthday. I saw all of the pictures online. That looked like a lot of fun." The next day, he emailed me and apologized for seeming like a stalker. I was actually pretty flattered, and it didn't hurt that he was cute.

Another mutual friend had a get-together at the end of the semester. This time, Jeremy decided to be more bold. He came over to me, leaned in, and said in very smooth voice, "So Ms. Ashley, how would a lowly undergrad like myself begin to make the acquaintance of a sophisticated graduate student like you?"

I raised my eyebrows and smiled, then gave a pretty straightforward answer -- something along the lines of just being himself. To which he hurriedly replied, "Oh, okay. Thanks." Then he walked away.

At this point a friend who'd been listening said, "Did he just refer to himself as a 'Lowly Undergrad'? Let's call him Lu for short."

A few months later, we were in the middle of a new semester. I was tired of school and not looking forward to spending Valentine's Day alone, so I jokingly put up a Facebook status that said I was accepting applications for Valentine's Day.

Lu made a comment about my status, and we went back and forth on each other's walls for a few days. During this time, he began to tell his best friend about me using the pseudonym "Valentine."

At 12:04 am on February 14, he posted on my wall, "Is it too late... I mean, it's postmarked the 13th... how about some 'Everything But The' to go with the completed app... lol"

We went on our first date on February 20, 2008, nearly four months after our initial meeting. The conversation flowed so naturally that we spent nearly three hours in a coffee shop and completely forgot to order coffee! We then began to see each other at least once a week for the rest of the semester. Although we had a lot in common and tons of fun together, our relationship was purely platonic.

I must admit, the platonic relationship frustrated me. He was flirtatious, but I got nothing more than a goodnight hug from him in the two months following our first date. When the the summer came, I was off to Washington, DC for an internship; while he was on his way to China to do research. Our only connection was chatting online.

Despite the 12-hour time difference, Lu and I managed to communicate every day. If we weren't chatting, we were leaving messages. We had deep conversations about our strengths and weaknesses, dreams and fears, and friends and family.

I realized I'd fallen in love with Lu when I feigned sickness and left a date early... just so I could sit at my computer waiting for him to message me. Although we were just friends at this point, I knew that he would play a special role in my future.

A month after we both returned to Michigan, we decided to make our relationship official. During these last 18 months, we have had some great moments: graduations, meeting each other's families, joining a church together, and lots of traveling. We've also had some stressful times: applying to graduate school, studying for qualifying exams, having a three-month long-distance relationship, and even a few health scares.

Through it all, we have remained committed to each other, and I am confident that Lu Valentine will continue to blossom and flourish.

*I wasn't going to use our real names in this blog, but I figured that Ashley and Jeremy are both common enough to provide some degree of anonymity.