"A True Love Story..."

(CNN) — James Sanford was sitting on a bench at Punta Cana International Airport in the Dominican Republic, waiting for his bag to appear on the luggage carousel.

It was August 2013, and Atlanta-based James, then in his late 20s, was in the Dominican Republic with his best friend to attend Pride celebrations.

The two friends were waiting for their luggage, chatting about the weekend of partying and celebrating that lay ahead, when James looked up and saw a stranger walking towards them.

"He had on like, the shortest shorts," James tells CNN Travel, laughing. "It caught my attention."

"I turn to my best friend and I'm like, 'Who's that guy in those shorts?'"

The guy in the shorts was Daron Fowler, a 32-year-old who, by coincidence, was also from Atlanta.

Also by coincidence -- Daron was in town to attend the same Pride event as James.

He just so happened to come and sit beside us," recalls James. "And so I sparked up a conversation. I don't usually initiate conversations, but something was just saying, 'Say hey.'"

When Daron sat down next to James, he wasn't looking to chat.

"I was just kind of getting my bearings," Daron tells CNN Travel. "I think at that point in my life, I dealt with a lot of social anxiety. So me coming to this event was a really big step.

"And so I sat down and he started flirting with me. And I'm like, 'Oh, he's cute, but I've got to get my social battery, for lack of a better expression, ready.'"

Despite Daron's hesitation, the two introduced themselves and started chatting. In a short back and forth, they realized they were both based in Atlanta, and both in the Dominican Republic for Pride.

Then James' bag appeared, so he got up to leave. He said goodbye to Daron, wondering if they'd meet again.

But there were lots of other people at the event, and over the course of the weekend James and Daron didn't directly cross paths.

"We didn't exchange information or anything. I just knew his name," says James.

The two caught sight of one another from afar a handful of times. And neither of them forgot the other.

"I remembered him for the rest of the trip," says Daron.

A few weeks later, Daron was back home in Atlanta and hosting a friend from New Jersey for the weekend.

The two went out to a club and there, by coincidence, was James.

Even more coincidentally, it turned out that Daron's New Jersey-based friend knew James already.

"The mutual friend introduces us, not knowing that we've met in DR," says James. "So I was like, 'Wow, hi, so we meet again."

James and Daron picked up the conversation where they'd left off at the airport. And this time, they exchanged numbers.

"Then I saw him throughout the weekend, because we were kind of running the same circles going to the same events that weekend," says Daron.

Over the next few months, James and Daron remained in one another's orbit, occasionally crossing paths at events and parties.

"The last time we saw each other, I made the move, and I said, 'Hey, how about we actually go on a date?'" says James.

The next weekend, Daron picked James up, and they went out in Atlanta's East Atlanta Village neighborhood.

"They have this really cute Thai restaurant and it's very dimly lit, and the tables were small. So it was very intimate," says James.

"We start to have a conversation and start talking about things, learning things that we had in common. And the entire time we were talking I had this big smile on my face, I couldn't stop smiling."

His smile was reflected on Daron's face.

"It was just a very open and positive vibe, and I felt like, 'This is different, I kind of like it,'" Daron says. "I felt very safe with him from pretty much the moment we were just by ourselves talking and engaging."

Both men say their connection felt "different" from anything they'd experienced in the past.

"There was this feeling, this unknown feeling that I wasn't familiar with, but it was one that I was comfortable with," says James.

He recalls thinking, "I think I've met a person that I want to spend the rest of my life with."

After that first date, James and Daron talked pretty much every day. When, a few weeks later, Atlanta was hit by an unexpected snow storm, James set up camp at Daron's house.

"I spent the entire rest of the week at his house, took my dog, I had a Boston Terrier, and he had two Pomeranians, and they were close in age," he says. "So that allowed us to build a bigger connection because we had this time together where it was just us."

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