It was closing time. Scott Tayloe marched up to the Starbucks counter in Jacksonville, Florida, and handed the barista a napkin with his number on it.
“Call me sometime,” he said, hoping his voice hit a cool-guy tone, though he knew in reality it was probably cracking like a schoolgirl’s.
Josh Holder looked down at the napkin. Scott was handsome, well-mannered and professional — just the type of guy he had always envisioned himself with. But he knew he wouldn’t call.
A couple years later, Josh was at the Lemon Bar in Jacksonville. A friend of his had met a great guy at a party and thought he’d be perfect for Josh. She invited both to the bar — a sort of blind date in the midst of a group hangout.
As Josh walked toward the guy, he realized it was the same Starbucks customer whose number he had secretly kept for so long.
Scott tried to pretend he didn’t remember but eventually cracked. “Why didn’t you call?” he asked. Josh explained he had been in a serious relationship at the time. By the end of the night, the two had exchanged phone numbers. For the next week, they spoke on the phone every day for hours. On July 15, 2004, they went on their first date.
“I always dreamt I would meet my future husband in line at the grocery store,” Scott wrote on CNN iReport. “I would be buying spaghetti, and he would be buying spaghetti sauce. Our eyes would lock and the rest would be history.”
“I always dreamt I would have a cute story. And I got one.”
The first date was followed by a second, then a third. They rented giant sumo wrestling costumes and battled each other in a friend’s backyard. They went horseback riding on the beach. For their six-month anniversary, they flew down to the Florida Keys. They took a road trip to Salt Lake City and spent months backpacking around Europe.
“It was like one of those crazy romantic movies,” Josh remembered. “Nobody does dates like this, but we did them all.”
On July 29, 2011, Scott slid a note under Josh’s door while on Cape Cod in Massachusetts: “Starbucks Boy, will you marry me today?”
Today, Scott and Josh Tayloe live in Los Angeles with their son, Hayden. They disagree over small things — movie selection, driving styles, which drawer to put the shorts in — but agree on all the big things, such as their plan to adopt more children.
With this kind of love story, it’s no wonder the couple believes so strongly in fate. One of Josh’s favorite stories is from Plato’s “Symposium”: The Greeks believed humans were originally created with four arms and four legs. Fearing their power, Zeus split them in half.
“So you have a perfect match,” Josh said. “You just have to find it.”