5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
From FaceTime to Face Time, In Person
After three weeks of chatting via FaceTime for 10 hours a day, Maya Felicity Vargas was impatiently waiting for Justin Corey Mejia to ask her out.
They had met as undergraduates in January 2019 in an introduction to communication law class at Barry University in Miami, and stayed in touch by occasional messaging.
They reconnected in December 2020 after Ms. Vargas reacted to Mr. Mejia's Instagram post asking female followers if they preferred 'six packs or a 'dad bod'.' She picked dad bod.
'I couldn't gauge how he felt, but I had a thing for his red beard from the beginning because my grandmother said I would marry a guy with red hair,' said Ms. Vargas, 28, the director of marketing for a21, an experiential marketing company in Miami. 'I finally asked if we would ever see each other in real life.'
Mr. Mejia thought she was another pretty girl from New York with a motivated attitude, yet different. 'Even though I'm used to quiet, I liked how the energy shifts because of her personality,' said Mr. Mejia, 29, a Miami-based account manager for Zaddy LLC, a creative brand marketing company in New York. 'But I had no grand plan.' He agreed to meet up.
[Click here to binge read this week's featured couples.]
Their first date was Jan. 9, 2021, when Mr. Mejia, born and raised in Miami, took Ms. Vargas, who grew up in the Bronx, on a locals tour of South Florida. They drove from Fort Lauderdale to Miami's Coconut Grove, passing local attractions, grocery stores and family-style restaurants while talking about their lives.
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