JAY, ME – It was a relationship destined to happen. Chris and Kristen Guay unknowingly crossed paths nearly a dozen times. After finally meeting online, now they’re married.
In 2004, Kristen was a hardworking single mother. Her world revolved around raising her baby boy, Nick. After her first marriage ended, she didn’t think true love was in the cards for her. But she still gave online dating a chance.
Kristen created a Yahoo personal account, or the Match.com of the early 2000s. Whenever she logged on, she always checked one man’s profile.
“His face was just so stinking cute! But I had left it at too cute, probably full of himself, pretty boy, not my style at all,” said Kristen.
But she couldn’t talk to the mystery man because she hadn’t paid the $10.99 membership fee that would’ve let her chat with other members. Even when the man sent her a message, she figured it was too good to be true and refused to sign up to respond.
Just days later, she visited her friend Stewart Smith at his photography studio. Hanging on his wall was a photo of the mystery man. “I was like, ‘STEWART! Who is this guy?!’” said Kristen.
Turns out, Stewart went to high school with Chris the mystery man. And he told Kristen that Chris’ hometown was just 20 minutes from her’s.
Kristen said she “broke the sound barrier” speeding home to pay the fee and respond to Chris’ message. The long message she sent included perhaps one too many details: her home phone number, cell phone number, work phone number, home address and work address.
“I just remember sitting back in my chair and going, ‘Please don’t let me be too late.’ Because I didn’t know. A minute later my phone rang,” said Kristen.
She had no idea Chris had been checking his account daily in hopes of getting a message back from her.
When he finally got her response, he momentarily thought she was “crazy” for including so much personal information. But then he got over it and thought, “Holy cow. She really does want to talk to me,” said Chris.
The two were amazed by their mutual connections and decided to meet for coffee. Their date ended up lasting three hours.
Finally, a connection after so many missed chances
With so many connections, they were shocked they hadn’t met before. Here are just a few of the times they could have crossed paths, but didn’t:
• Chris’ sister taught at the same elementary school as Kristen’s mother.
• A mutual friend that worked at the same radio station as Kristen actually tried to set the two up on a blind date. But Kristen refused.
• They both attended the same party. Of course, the party was hosted by Stewart, and they were seated at neighboring tables.
• Chris actually took Kristen’s job at a cellular company after she left to work at a radio station.
The list goes on and on.
“It’s almost like there was someone trying to push us together, and then something happens and it doesn’t happen, and we miss each other and then try again,” said Chris. “Almost like there’s this frustrated angel going, ‘Come on!!!!’”
So when they finally met, they knew it was something special.
“We were walking back, holding hands, and I was just like, ‘I never want to leave him. I never wanted to be without him,’” said Kristen.
Kristen ignored all her dating rules and asked Chris to meet her son and family three days after their first date to celebrate the Fourth of July.
“The whole day hanging out just felt like the right place to be,” said Chris.
He did admit, that day was the one and only time he lied to Kristen. When he was invited to spend the night, he refused saying he had responsibilities to fulfill at home.
But he just wanted to write her a letter.
“I basically wrote her a letter telling her right then and there I knew I was going to marry her. And that I was going to give her this letter on our wedding day… which I did,” said Chris.
The two were married in October, just shy of three months after their first meeting. Three kids and 14 years later, Chris and Kristen are still madly in love.
“We were meant to be together and I think the universe, or God, or however you believe we were meant to be together. We kept missing each other at certain turns, but I think there’s no way that I wasn’t going to end up with him,” said Kristen.
