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FINDING THE ONE

Sometimes Cupid’s arrow knows rightwhere it’s headed; other times it takes a few detours. In honor of Valentine’s Day,we get toyour gooey centerwith sweet, complicated, imperfect, real-life love stories.

FOURTH TIME’S ACHARM

ONCE UPON ATIME, in 2009, there was a woman named Corliss and a guy named Amani, two artsy types in Brooklyn— and a friend who tried to fix them up. Facebook activity ensued. Corliss, then an art director for a magazine (she now runs a vintage-clothing boutique), sent Amani a message. Amani says he never got it (ahem). But he saw her picture. And six months later, lo and behold, he stepped into a singles party in her neighborhood, and there she was.

“She was talking to some tall guy,” recalls Amani, who runs his own marketing and public relations agency in the arts. Amani edged his way in and introduced himself.

The two had a nice rapport and soon found themselves chatting out on the roof deck. About 20 minutes in, Amani was ready to leave the party and asked Corliss to go with him. She was turned off. “I wasn’t about to leave my friends at a party and go off with someone I’d just met,” she says. She’d enjoyed talking, but with that request, she reassessed. “I thought he was a little too forward!” she says, laughing.

They kept in touch, went on a few dates, and ended up at an awkward group bowling party together. They each tell it differently, but an unexciting first kiss at the end of that night was probably influenced by their feelings for other people. Amani was hung up on an ex. “And Corliss was open about being into some guy she knew,” says Amani. “She did not want to date me! We were both dealing with stuff.”

Their story could have easily ended there,just two more New Yorkers melting back into the crowds with barely remembered mediocre dates in their shared past.

Then came the holiday season of 2010, with all the twinkle, magic, and crippling loneliness holidays can bring. A few months prior, Amani had been on the dating site OKCupid when who should pop up as his “99 percent match” but (wait forit) Corliss. He called her to report the hilarious algorithm fail, and they played a few rounds of noncommittal phone tag. But it wasn’t until one night in December, after coming home from a terrible date, that he found himself wanting to be with her. “Why be miserable?” he wondered. “It’s the holidays, and I want to hang withsomeone cool…with no romantic interest.”So, he says, “I called Corliss.”

Corliss invited Amani to a friend’s party, and when he walked into the room, “it was like someone had sprinkled pixie dust on both of us,” she says. She thought, “He looks taller.” Before Amani could make his customary early party exit, Corlisskissed him. He stayed. They were engaged within a year.

Written by Amy Shearn Photographs by Robert Maxwell