Love Story: Adam and Jenny Intravia, Riverhead

Adam and Jenny Intravia, of Riverhead, tried to ignore the feelings they had for each other, but fate had something else in mind. Adam tells their story.

I moved back home to Patchogue in the spring of 1996 after leaving Hunter College in Manhattan. I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life and felt kind of displaced. One night I met a friend at the California Diner on Sunrise Highway in Patchogue.

He was with two young women, one of whom was Jenny, my future wife. She later told me that after being introduced she whispered to her girlfriend, "Oh, my God, that's the guy I'm going to marry."

She also confessed that this idea terrified her. She was a put-together, classy girl from Sayville while I was an aspiring writer/artist, with long blue hair and crazy clothes. We were both 19.

Jenny and I began spending time together hanging out with a group of mutual friends. There always seemed to be a spark between us, but we never acted on it. We dated other people while attempting to ignore the growing attraction we shared.

That August I started classes at Jamestown Community College in Dunkirk. Jenny also moved upstate to attend the University of Rochester. On my first weekend in Fredonia, my roommate's friend asked my roommate to drive him to Rochester -- 130 miles away -- to see his girlfriend. I decided to go along. When we got there I found Jenny sitting on the couch. We were both stunned to see each other. It turns out Jenny and the guy's girlfriend were roommates. From that point on, Jenny and I became closer but still remained friends. We'd spend hours talking on the phone, and whenever I could get a ride, I'd visit her in Rochester.

At the end of the year we were both back on Long Island during school break and shared our first kiss on New Year's Eve at Fadeley's Deli Pub in Patchogue.

Our union appears to be in the stars; we kept leaving each other, even going hundreds of miles apart, only to be brought back together by something bigger than us.

We finally tied that long overdue knot on Aug. 23, 2003, and in 2005 we had our daughter. This year, we received a wonderful 10th anniversary gift in the form of our second baby girl.

Without Jenny to guide me I'd be a useless wreck.

My family is the center of my life and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. Jenny is a stay-at-home mom and I am a substance-abuse counselor, working for the Sachem school district.