In another thread, far, far away, we are discussing whether you could be rejected, even brutally or coldly, by someone whom you later came to be accepted by (or to accept) as a romantic partner. Rather than opine that in my experience you could, I’d like to elicit stories of Dopers who have found rejection blossoming into acceptance, from either side, male/female, straight/gay/, happy/unhappy ending, etc.
My own best anecdote is of the male/straight/unhappy ending sort: when I met a girl, whom I liked and who seemed to like me, when I was 16, she basically told me “Give it up, I’m a world-class beauty, older than you, WAY out of your league, with a terrific boyfriend and zero interest in you romantically. Got all that?”
I told her that I did, and then proceeded to stay as close to her as she’d allow–cut to seven years later, still in touch with her, off and on in a more or less platonic sense, when she finally broke up with the boyfriend, dated me, lived with me, married me, had kids with me, and divorced me eventually.
She couldn’t have been clearer about rejecting my initial romantic overtures, nor clearer that she was happy to be my wife, after only 12 years of pursuit.