The site of the love connection.

We had lots of great entries for our Upper West Side love story contest, but we had to choose one…and Rick Whitaker’s piece stood out for being particularly fun and surprising. Check it out below!

By Rick Whitaker

West Side Market, 110 and Broadway, cheese aisle—asked to bring “something stinky but not too stinky”—when I bump into this implausibly tall person with long brown hair wearing some sort of a dress and the highest-heeled black boots and wafting off some crazy pheromones, that or some super-sophisticated perfume, I was like, damn, and with just my eyebrows I’m like, who are you, are you single, are you interested, are you a guy, and this very tall person smiles and says Hey, daddy, what’s the best stinky cheese in this joint? I’m like, I was asking myself that very same question, let’s consult the expert, shall we? We enlist the advice of the cheese guy, who sets us up with some killer Stilton, we head for the cashier, walk out into the rain and share my umbrella.

One year ago today. We’re mad happy in love. No gender necessary.

Rick wins two tickets to Shakespeare in the Park’s “Much Ado About Nothing”. To learn how to get tickets, go here.