00:00 Falling in love with your childhood best friend is like finding sanctuary for your life forever.
00:07 I'm Kate MacNeil. This is Paul Damon.
00:16 We grew up alongside each other and I've been in love with Paul forever.
00:22 We reconnected after 24 years.
00:24 We met in a dance studio.
00:26 I was dancing with the sisters.
00:28 And I was so nervous in every single class that he came to.
00:32 But I mean, I would send him notes during performances or during rehearsals.
00:36 Like, "I need a hug. Meet me here."
00:38 And like, I would just basically melt into his arms if I was...
00:42 if I had just been yelled at by a ballet teacher or something.
00:44 We finally got up the gusto to get together, right?
00:49 So she comes over to my house and we still haven't kissed at this point.
00:53 We're in high school. I think we're both seniors by this point.
00:57 And so I go up into the kitchen and she tries to give me a kiss.
01:00 I'm like, "What is happening?"
01:02 And I do one of these numbers because I'm nervous anyways.
01:06 100% scared to death.
01:08 Don't know how I'm supposed to do any of this stuff.
01:11 You know, this is the only person that I would like to be with.
01:14 I know this when I'm 17, 18 years old.
01:18 And I do that.
01:19 I'm pretty much done.
01:21 I'm like, "She's never gonna talk to me again.
01:23 She's never gonna think about me again.
01:25 Like, this is terrible."
01:27 Quite honestly, after that, when I graduated high school,
01:32 I ended up just rolling on out.
01:34 I went into the Navy and just was like, "You know what?"
01:36 When I was living in Northern Virginia as an adult with a child,
01:42 like, I would just constantly check on him on Facebook.
01:44 And then finally, I just got up the courage to friend request him.
01:48 And he waited a very long time.
01:51 When she reached out, the reason why that I waited
01:54 was because I was kind of like, "Why is this happening now?
01:58 This is a long time."
02:00 And I was nervous.
02:03 I was very nervous.
02:04 A couple of days after Christmas, I just,
02:06 "I gotta do it. I gotta do it.
02:08 I can't just sit here and wait."
02:12 So January 4th, he finally said, "Hey, stranger."
02:14 And I said, "Hey, I'd love to talk if I can have your number or whatever."
02:18 He said, "I thought you would have hated me."
02:20 And I said, "I don't know why I would have hated you."
02:22 And then we talked for, I think, three or four hours that night.
02:25 Might seem weird for some dude flying down, you know, after 20 some odd years.
02:30 I really hope she comes and picks me up
02:32 because it's going to be awkward if she decides
02:34 that she's not really down for all this.
02:36 I hear her yell, you know, probably like 10 carlings down the way.
02:42 And I look over and it was immediately like, "Thank God."
02:46 We hugged.
02:48 We didn't kiss until we got back to the house
02:50 because I didn't want to do that in front of the boys
02:53 because they hadn't really seen me with anybody.
02:55 You know, I didn't want to rock their world.
02:57 Eight weeks later, he moved in.
03:00 I understand the irony.
03:01 I'm just saying in the moment,
03:03 I was trying to be respectful of people's business and like their feelings.
03:07 I consider it to be the first kiss period
03:10 because it's really the one I've been waiting for.
03:13 It's great to have a person that supports you and loves you and cares about you
03:18 and you don't necessarily have to say anything.
03:20 Falling in love with your childhood best friend
03:24 is like finding sanctuary for your life forever.
03:29 [Music]
