Relationships sometimes are unexpected

The first time Jon and Ali kissed, it wasn’t pretty. They were just friends at the time, and Ali wasn’t expecting it.

“I freaked out,” Ali says now, more than a decade after the two University of Maine graduates met while they were freshmen living in Orono.

Jon’s a good friend of mine, and I finally got to meet Ali when she came up for a visit from Framingham, Mass.

Bemoaning my recent dating struggles over a beer at the Bear Brew Pub in Orono, Ali gave me some great advice.

Don’t worry, she told me. Unexpected things can happen at any time.

That’s just what happened in Ali’s life recently, when she became reacquainted with Jon, who grew up on Mount Desert Island and now works for the University of Maine. They’re planning his move from Orono to Framingham this summer. And they’re in loooove.

Jon is a pretty well-known man-about-Orono, but I first met him this summer at a wedding. He was wearing a light-blue leisure suit, straight outta 1977. What kind of person, I wondered bitchily to myself, wears a leisure suit to a wedding?

Well, Jon does. He wears lots of quirky stuff, which is part of his charm. He does lots of quirky stuff, too. Jon once signed an e-mail “Mickey Shingles.” Guests to his apartment are invited to give a handwriting sample on an elementary school-type writing primer.

Mickey … I mean Jon … and I became good buddies. I hadn’t known him that long, but I didn’t figure him for a commitment-minded guy.

Then I started getting e-mails from Jon in which he mentioned his Girl Scout from Framingham. Soon enough she had a name – Ali – and a history.

Last weekend a group of us went for sushi. I had to know how it all happened. How, I asked, did you two find each other again?

Ali and Jon met as freshmen at the University of Maine. They even remember date and place – Sept. 2, 1993, at his room in Stoddard Hall. Apparently any romantic feelings were a bit one-sided back then. The first kiss didn’t work out as well as Jon planned.

The two became good friends, but they both moved on after college. There were occasional visits, and phone calls about twice a year.

Then, in 2002, Ali found John’s e-mail address at Colby College in Waterville, where he was working.

“All of a sudden I was like, whoa,” Jon said, recalling his feelings when her e-mail popped up.

They rekindled their friendship, with a minor setback when plans for him to go to a Patriots game in Massachusetts fell through. They didn’t talk for a few months.

But things were OK, and when they both had less-than-exciting Valentine’s Day weekends, they decided it was time for her to visit.

“She called me every hour on the way up,” he said.

Jon heard her on the stairs to his apartment. She walked in. He still can remember what she was wearing – white shirt, black EMS vest, Ugg boots.

His reaction?

“Stars,” Jon said. “… It was surreal.”

Sitting at dinner last weekend, Ali rolled her eyes at his dramatics. Seeing stars? Please. But Jon was slightly more understated in his description of the moment to me weeks earlier. The minute they saw each other again, they knew it was right. In fact, Jon told me recently he can see himself with Ali for the future.

The day after Ali’s big entrance, they went to Stoddard Hall and took a picture in front of the door where it all began.

I would have thought the next test would be the NFL draft. Jon’s a draft junkie, and he has told me he has lost girlfriends in the past over his unwillingness to move from in front of the TV on a certain April weekend. But that won’t be an issue with Ali. She loves football, too.

Jon’s wardrobe may be the one sticking point. Don’t expect his choice of wedding attire to turn up in Framingham.

“The blue leisure suit,” Ali said, “is not making the move.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at jbloch@bangordailynews.net