Dear 100hookup,

Before I met Brent, I spent almost a year on 100hookup. I always read the Mazel Tov stories and wondered if I would ever be able to write one. I did not especially “like” the experience of online dating and did not find any success until the day I met Brent. He was the first person I met on 100hookup with whom I actually had a second date! Brent had also spent a fair amount of time as a member on 100hookup and had found a little more success than I had, but obviously nothing before had worked out.

I was living with my mom and going to graduate school at UCLA. Brent was living with his parents while he worked and saved money. We both really wanted to meet someone hookup, and we were both ready to be in a committed, serious relationship with the potential of settling down. They say timing is everything, and with us, the timing could not have been better.

Brent sent me an instant message on 100hookup, which I missed the first time. I wrote him back and asked if we could email instead. I was in the middle of final exams for my first year of graduate school, so I almost didn’t write him back at all. After a week of blowing him off, I realized that there was something nagging me, compelling me to write him back. His profile didn’t necessarily woo me beyond belief, but there was just something about him. I guess he saw it in my profile, because he was waiting for me to write him back. Finally, I did, and things went very quickly from there. It was the single best thing I ever did in my entire life.

We talked on the phone a couple times and then made a plan to meet for coffee. We met outside on my street and then walked to a coffee shop in the neighborhood. Instantly, there was none of the awkwardness I had felt with other 100hookups. We joked around and had lively conversation. When he walked me back to my street, neither of us really felt like saying goodbye. We hugged and then had our first kiss! Before we said goodnight, we made a plan to see each other that Saturday (the coffee date was on Monday).

As it turned out, even though we planned a first real date for Saturday, Brent came over a few times before that because we already had a strong urge to spend time together. He was in a play at the time, and we saw each other as much as we could when he wasn’t at work or in rehearsals. That Saturday was our official date, and it was wonderful. We spent 10 hours together, which wasn’t long enough. The following Tuesday (a week and a day after we met), he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I was ecstatic!

We grew into an extremely close couple and became best friends. We always remark on how “compatible” we are, and we are each other’s favorite person to spend time with. We have a connection that those around us can see and feel. We had a chance to go to Israel together, which was an incredible experience and brought us even closer. We got an apartment and moved in together, which felt completely natural and comfortable.

Then, eleven months after meeting, on my 24th birthday, he asked me to marry him. I was so overwhelmed with excitement and joy that I forgot to say yes. But he knew that I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with him. We remind ourselves every day how incredibly lucky we are to have found each other. We are absolutely meant to be together and are overjoyed to start our journey and, in a few years, start a family together.

We married this June, two years after we met. We would never have met if it hadn’t been for 100hookup. That single instant message changed both our lives, for the better, forever. We are so in love, and now, I finally get to write the kind of happy ending story that I had read from others so many times while I was on my search for Brent.

Rachel & Brent
West L.A. and Woodland Hills, California

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