On a 13 hour flight from San Fran to Stockholm, I was seated next to this guy who helped me with my bags. I smiled at him and said thank you, and he took it as an invitation to start asking me questions. We started talking about where we were from, and our hometowns ended up being right next to each other, a few hours outside of the city. I told him I had gone to my favorite cafe back home that morning, and he guessed the name of it and said he had been there that morning too! It was all really funny, and so we kept talking, and he told me he was 25 and finishing his Phd at Yale. He was working on some assignment that would have him in Europe for the following 3 months. Most people from where we're from end up working at Walmart for life, but he was different, so charming and well spoken... so I was very intrigued. I think the feeling was mutual because I had also escaped our little rural town, but unlike him, I wasn't in school. I was just hopping from city to city, without a plan or a care in the world, a 21 year old girl with only a suitcase and a passport to my name. I was headed to Paris, where I had a different guy waiting for me who I had met when I was there visiting. I wasn't sure about him, but he had invited me to stay with him for a few months, and I didn't have any other plans or anywhere to stay besides my parents house, so I was going. I told the guy sitting next to me on the plane I had a boyfriend, but it didn't stop him from asking me more questions. Four hours into the flight, we were still talking nonstop, and he kept looking into my eyes and touching my hand 'on accident.' I had never had such an amazing conversation with anyone, he told me so much about himself and I really opened up to him as well. Our lives had so many similarities but so many differences, too. We had the craziest chemistry, I've never felt anything else like it. 6 hours in, when the lights were out, we were holding hands under a blanket, gazing into each others eyes and whispering things to each other. He kept trying to kiss me, I kept trying to stop him, but eventually I gave in. Everyone around us was asleep, we weren't causing a scene or anything, but it was so hot. He ended up slipiing his hands into my pants for a few seconds, I was so soaked. We ended up falling asleep on each other for a few hours, and when we woke, up, we just kept talking. My heart was already breaking at the thought of the end of the flight, so we exchanged details. It was really funny because everyone around us, including the stewardesses, thought we were a couple that had been together a long time, and we just went with it. We both had connecting flights to catch, but as fate would have it, our plane was late and we both missed our flights. We were both put up in an airport hotel, and so we went and got our bags together and checked in. I was so torn about what to do. I had a guy waiting for me in Paris, but I was falling in love with someone else. I gave in, and I invited him into my room. We talked all night long... we made love, and I cried because it was so passionate. The next day, we explored the city together, and it was so amazing... but then I had to catch my flight. I was crying, and he was visibly shaken too. I wanted him to ask me to stay. If he had, I think I think I would have. Once I got to Paris, it was so hard for me to kiss and hug the guy there. He could tell something was wrong and it was really awkward. The guy from the plane was texting me, and he told me he had changed his plans and was coming to Paris. He wanted to spend more time with me. I told him I couldn't, that I was living with another guy, and if he found out, he would reasonably kick me out and that would leave me with nowhere to go. The guy from the plane said that I could just stay with him, go with him from country to country for 3 months while he did his project, and then we could figure it out from there. I was so torn. I wanted to do that so bad, but I also was afraid that he would get sick of me after a few days and change his mind. I was afraid I wasn't good enough for him because he was so smart and accomplished, and I was just a little irresponsible girl tramping around Europe. Even though he was my dream guy, I didn't feel worthy of hanging out in the circles he ran in, and so I freaked out... and I blocked his number, blocked him on facebook, and haven't spoken to him since. It took a while to get over him, and to this day I look at his facebook secretly and wonder what would have happened if I had said yes... Currently I'm living in South Africa, but every time I go home, I hope I run into him at our favorite cafe...