Amy Osmun assumed she’d never see Mike Gilberstadt again.
They’d met only 10 hours before. Now they were standing in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, facing one another, both putting off the farewells. But time was ticking. They were both set to catch connecting flights – Amy to Scotland, Mike to Greece.
“I guess we have to say goodbye,” said Amy, reluctantly.
In a gesture of farewell, Mike leaned in to hug Amy. He kissed her, briefly, on the cheek.
Then Mike readied to leave, adjusting the bag on his shoulder. He was about to turn away when Amy spoke:
“Is that all I’m going to get?” she said, smiling.
Even as she said it, Amy knew this was a moment she’d remember.
“That’s when he gave me a real kiss,” Amy tells today. “It was absolutely electric.”
For a moment, Amy and Mike stood, kissing, amid the crowds of travelers at the airport. And then it really was time to say goodbye. Mike took Amy’s number, writing down her details on a scrap of paper. Then they went in different directions.
As Amy walked away from Mike, she tried to make sense of what had just happened. She never usually spoke to strangers while traveling, let alone kissed them. And she couldn’t figure out how her airport embrace with Mike fit into the wider context of her life.
Was Mike just a stranger she’d quickly forget? Would this become a funny story someday? Would she always wonder what could have been? Or would she look back and feel sadness, regret?
As Amy lined up at her gate, she tried to shake herself out of her reverie and swipe Mike from her mind. After all, she wasn’t just traveling to Scotland for a vacation — she was visiting someone. And not just anyone: her boyfriend.
Mike couldn’t be someone, Amy told herself, because she already had her someone.
An airplane encounter
Amy and Mike met on March 23, 2006, on an airplane about to depart Los Angeles International Airport.
Back then, Amy was a 24-year-old trainee dietician at California State University, flying to Scotland for spring break.
She’d ended up with the middle seat – an unenviable prospect for a long-haul flight. But while there was someone sitting next to Amy by the window, there was no one sitting in the aisle seat.
“It looked like I had an empty seat next to me for the long-haul flight – so I was pretty excited,” Amy recalls today. “And then I swear, right before the plane doors closed, he came sauntering down the aisle.”
“He”, of course, was Mike — who is, by his own admission, “not a punctual man.” He was the last person to board the plane, and he bounced into the empty seat next to Amy, who couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“I was not impressed in the moment, as I faced a 10-hour flight squished in a middle seat,” Amy recalls.
But then Mike apologized – half jokingly, half sincere – for ruining Amy’s flight. And then, noting her eye mask and travel neck pillow already wrapped around her head, Mike – half jokingly, half sincere – offered Amy his shoulder to sleep on instead.
Amy smiled despite herself.
Later, once they were in the air, when Amy’s food choice arrived and looked less-than-edible, Mike insisted she help herself to his meal tray.
As she picked food off his plate, Mike and Amy started chatting – realizing they were a similar age, both living in Southern California, both interested in travel.
Amy thought Mike was funny and self-assured – and while she noted he tried to mask it under his jokes and bravado, he seemed kind. Feeling comfortable in his presence – and desperate to sleep – Amy accepted Mike’s offer of sleeping on his shoulder.
Several hours later, Mike and Amy landed in Amsterdam. As they disembarked the airplane, Mike suggested they grab a coffee together.
First in the coffee line, and later as they walked through the airport, Amy and Mike continued chatting. Amy noted how easy conversation was – even though they barely knew one another and were both bleary-eyed from the overnight flight.
And then, somehow, they ended up kissing in the middle of Amsterdam Schipol Airport.
“I thought I’d never see him again,” says Amy. “So I was like, ‘Why not go out there a little bit?’”
From long haul to phone calls
As for Mike, he’d liked Amy from the moment she scowled at him, eye mask perched on her head, as he boarded the plane at LAX. Throughout his time in Greece, Mike regularly replayed the airport kiss in his mind, hoping he’d see Amy again, wondering if and when he should get in touch.
Meanwhile Amy was enduring a “disastrous” visit with her long-distance boyfriend. She left Scotland single.
The break-up wasn’t really anything to do with Mike, says Amy today. She just realized this particular guy wasn’t right for her.
Back in California, Amy returned to her classes and doubled down on her studies. From time to time, Amy’s thoughts drifted to Mike – on their immediate rapport, on the airport kiss – but when he unexpectedly phoned her one day and asked her out, Amy said no. She was still reeling from her break-up and didn’t want to jump into anything new too quickly.
But over the next several weeks, Mike kept calling. Soon, Amy and Mike were chatting on the phone for hours at a time.
Mike’s roommates teased him about these lengthy calls, but Mike laughed off their jokes. He enjoyed talking to Amy, and she liked talking to him too.
“Mike was still just as charming as he was on the plane and at the airport,” says Amy. “So I finally took him up, and we went on our first date.”
That first evening, Amy and Mike met up for sushi and then went for a walk on the beach which turned into Mike giving Amy a piggyback ride. They collapsed onto the sand, laughing.
Later, back at Mike’s apartment, Amy marveled at the fact Mike’s television set had TiVo – a recording device that allows viewers to record live television to watch later.
Right away, Amy wrote down a list of her favorite TV shows and asked Mike if he could record them on her behalf. Amy was genuinely excited at this prospect – but it was also a bit of a ruse: if Mike was recording Amy’s favorite TV shows, she’d definitely be returning to watch them.
