Lougan had long given up on dating, simply looking for a coffee recipe when fate decided to intervene. On the other side of the equation was Ngoc, someone who had resigned herself to a life of solitude, even proclaiming she was "forever alone." So, when she unexpectedly asked Lougan to meet after barely exchanging words on a dating site, his shock and nervousness were overwhelming.

Their first date was simple—tea and a walk. It was a humid, sticky late June evening, the kind where the air clung to the skin. But none of that mattered. The conversation between them was effortless, deep, and strangely familiar, the kind of exchange that made the heat and discomfort fade into the background.

They spoke candidly about their worst dating experiences—the awkward encounters, the strange characters, the lessons learned along the way. Somewhere amidst the laughter and shared frustrations, their conversation turned toward hopes and dreams, the futures they had once envisioned for themselves. And, perhaps without realizing it, they both admitted how much they had longed to share those dreams with someone.

They had expected nothing from that evening. She hadn't planned for romance, hadn't dared to hope for anything beyond a polite greeting and a quiet, inevitable goodbye. In truth, he assumed Ngoc would decide that dating simply wasn’t worth the effort, and they would part ways just as quickly as they had come together.

As the night unfolded, something undeniable took root. He wouldn’t have admitted it then—not even to himself—but he was smitten. That warm summer evening marked the beginning of something unexpected, something life-changing. And as time passed, he often found himself thinking back to that first night, that walk, that conversation with the woman he didn’t yet know he would share his life with.

Des Lux Hotel

Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton

Surety Hotel