I had parked my motorbike, taken my helmet off and had just walked into the coffee shop. Immediately, I started scanning the patrons for somebody I was scheduled to meet. This was my first meeting with the person – so I was very focused on doing some pattern matching with the Linkedin picture I had seen of him.

And then in a jiffy, my eyes did a quick retrace as I thought I saw somebody all smiles at me. Sure enough!! It was good old Stacy working at a table!

We had become friends when I used to work out of Roam. You might remember some of her incredible cappuccino art from some of my old posts.

She had then moved to a new job. And today I got to see her for the first time after that!

That was a great start to the morning!

First time I met Laura was at work around 2007 when we had moved to Atlanta.

Then Sharmila and I paid her a visit in her house in Chile around 2011.

In 2017, Laura moved to Atlanta and I got a chance to meet her in a coffee shop in Alpharetta. And then, although all these years we have lived within a few miles of each other, we never managed to meet.

Till today, of course! We met in another coffee shop in Alpharetta literally a few steps from that old spot. It was a great reminder how much downtown Alpharetta has changed in these few years!

It was one dark morning I had run with Natasha with the rest of the Windward Road Runners group. And that started a friendship that has lasted for two decades – although we have run together only a few times after that day.

Sharmila and I met her in Qatar in few years back and even before that I met Natasha and her mother outside Doha airport while switching flights. And for the last few summers, I have enjoyed meeting her and her younger son Matteo when they visit Atlanta. I learn every time from both of them.

Today was that evening for this summer!