I found my heart in San Francisco.

My senior year of college, I attended a student conference in San Francisco. During the opening session, I walked into the room to see a flood of unfamiliar faces. One face, however, stood out. The face belonged to a strikingly handsome guy, about my age, who was sitting at a table in the middle of the room. Despite the guy's good looks, he had a modest and shy demeanor, almost child-like. The seat next to him was empty and I seized the opportunity to get to know him better. His name was Justin and he was a student from Oregon. As I got to know him, I found that he was incredibly intelligent yet approachable, confident yet kind. Justin and I exchanged contact info, but we did not see each other for the next two days until the closing session of the conference.

At the closing session of the conference, I approached him and asked him when he was leaving and what he was doing for the rest of the day. He was leaving in the evening like me, and thus had a few hours to kill in the city. We agreed to do some sightseeing together and made our way out of the hotel. It was a beautiful day and so we decided to walk to the Coit Tower. Along the way, I got to know Justin better and everything he shared with me made me want to know more. When we made it to the top of the Coit Tower, the view was perfect, the weather was perfect, and he seemed perfect. At this point, neither of us had revealed to each other that we were gay and the conversation had remained platonic. I told him about a job offer I had accepted in New York and he revealed that he was intending to go to New York after graduation as well. We agreed to keep in touch until our paths crossed again in the fall.

For the next 6 months, I thought about Justin a lot. We emailed each other occassionally and with each new email I tried to dig in a little deeper to see if he was interested in me romantically. Justin was frustratingly ambiguous in response to my flirtatious advances, which drove me absolutely crazy. By the fall, I had already resigned myself emotionally to just being friends with him.

When I arrived in New York, I called Justin and we agreed to do some sightseeing the next day and meet in Time Square. The day of our meeting, I waited in Time Square, at the busiest intersection in the world. I spotted Justin walking among the crowds. He was far better looking than I had remembered. He greated me with a huge smile and I realized at that moment that I was in love. We proceeded to find a place for lunch. Confused by the ambiguity of the situation, I asked him directly if he was gay. He stammered a bit and told me he was gay, but not out of the closet. I sighed as I realized that a relationship with him would be an uphill battle.

We spent the entire day together walking around New York and ended the evening watching a Broadway show. The day was just as perfect as the day I first met him. I decided to take a risk and hold his hand during the show, an advance to which he obliged. From this day onward, Justin and I would spend two wonderful years together as boyfriends in New York.

My relationship with Justin definitely had its ups and downs, but honestly I would say my two years with him were some of the happiest years of my life. I was crazy about him and he became my best friend. In the end, my hectic travel schedule at work and his starting graduate school led to our split, but we have remained friends since and still share fond memories of each other.

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