Luckily, by being helplessly myself, and by her seeing good in that.
We were coworkers. Me in Produce, her in Deli. We had breaks together regularly enough, and while I was an introvert, I could still be plenty talkative with people I felt comfortable with.
A primary attribute of me being comfortable with you was you not seeming put off by me talking to you.
And apparently from talking to me, she thought I was genuine, nice, kind, and trustworthy.
As for me, I was probably in love with her before we started dating.
But I never imagined at the time that she would ever be interested in me.
As for how we ended up together?
I was dating a girl at the time, about 3 weeks in. An asian girl with a VERY asian mother. I had known this girl for a long time and had a few near-misses with her in the past. Her mother did not approve of me, and she was incredibly domineering and abusive. Things came to a head with that, where we had to make a choice together. I was ready to go down swinging. I couldn't help myself. I was a romantic and I didn't get a lot of girls.
But my friendship with my (now) wife had been blossoming at that point. Something just struck me as I sat in my room, thinking about what to do. If I stuck it out with the girl I was with, i'd probably miss my chance with my (now) wife.
It was so weird because i was just casual friends with her. But I just could not shake that notion of losing my chance, even though I didn't really think I had one with her at all.
I ended up breaking it off with the girl. Her parents threatened to stop paying for her school, and as much as my decision was about the fear of missing that chance, a big part of it was that I knew I couldn't let her throw her future away on a 3 week relationship.
So we said our goodbyes, somehow managing to basically revert back to just being friends (Still are today), and within a few weeks, riding the high of what I can only call my destiny, I went on my first date with this other girl.
That will be 10 years ago this year.
We've been married for 3 of those years.
And have been terrorized by a tiny human girl for the last 2.
And the crazy thing about all of this is that I serenaded her with Guitar Hero 3 the night of our first date. It's a story that should not have ended how it did. I played "While you were young" by the Killers, and for the next several years it was her ringtone for me.