That they had a teenage summer season romance. Right here’s what occurred after they reunited years later

CNN
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Each time Andrea Camila was feeling unhappy, she’d forged her thoughts again to that summer season.

That summer season, to be exact, was 2014. The summer season Andrea first crossed paths with Lewis Kelly. A summer season of old flame, unforgettable sunsets and – later – a crushing first heartbreak.

Again then, Andrea was 14, “form of boy-crazy” and on trip in Clearwater Seaside, Florida, with a bunch of family and friends.

Andrea had lived in Florida since transferring there from Puerto Rico as a younger child. However whereas it was acquainted territory, there was one thing totally different about hanging out within the Sunshine State on a trip, versus being there in the course of the college yr.

Andrea and her pals shortly befriended the opposite youngsters staying on the lodge. Then, the group whiled away days on the seaside, laughing and joking collectively till the solar sank by means of the cloudless sky into the ocean.

Whereas many of the youngsters on the lodge have been from the US, there was one notable exception: a 16-year-old Irish boy known as Lewis Kelly.

In contrast to the American youngsters, Lewis stored himself to himself, spending his days hanging out together with his mother and father and sunbathing by the pool.

However unbeknownst to Lewis, he was the discuss of the resort: the very fact he was from Eire was each intriguing and swoonworthy to the American youngsters – particularly Andrea.

She’d spend all day interested by Lewis, stealing glances each time she noticed him throughout the pool.

“I used to be obsessive about One Course once I was youthful,” Andrea tells CNN Travel at present. “In order quickly as I noticed this Irish boy, I used to be like ‘Oh my God, he’s my Niall.’”

It was true that Lewis shared an accent with One Course’s Niall Horan. However he was a lot quieter than any boybander. He appeared aloof, “a loner,” as Andrea thought again then. She couldn’t determine how she’d ever get speaking to him. However she stored daydreaming all the identical.

“I used to be telling my pals about how cute I believed he was,” recollects Andrea. “I used to be watching him, each time we have been on the eating places.”

On one event, Andrea was gazing at Lewis as they each sat on reverse sides of the lodge pool. Lewis was unaware, preoccupied together with his lunch.

“Then, a seagull swooped down out of the air, grabbed the cookie I used to be about to put into my mouth, grabbed it from my arms,” Lewis tells CNN Journey.

“Andrea noticed the entire thing from throughout the pool, and he or she began laughing. I didn’t even discover that she began laughing as a result of I used to be so shocked that I simply acquired robbed by a hen.”

Whereas Lewis was oblivious, Andrea’s pal wasn’t. She side-eyed her as Andrea giggled.

“Alright,” stated Andrea’s pal. “Sufficient is sufficient. We’re going to speak to him.”

Andrea protested, however it was too late. Her pal had already grabbed her arm and was making a beeline for Lewis.

“I used to be like, ‘No, please,’” recollects Andrea. “However then we went up to one another. And it was clearly excellent.”

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Andrea and Lewis hit it off instantaneously, first laughing in regards to the seagull and the cookie, then chatting about Eire and the US.

Instantly, it was apparent that Lewis was much less of a loner, and extra simply the odd one out amongst a bunch of American youngsters, and a bit too shy to introduce himself to the opposite youngsters unprompted. Heartened by this, Andrea instructed they might all hang around later that day, on the lodge’s lounge. Lewis stated he’d undoubtedly swing by.

“I simply thought she was going to be a pal,” says Lewis. “After which, clearly, that didn’t occur. We grew to become much more than pals.”

Nonetheless, this didn’t occur immediately. When Lewis made it to the lounge that day, the opposite youngsters flocked to him earlier than Andrea may even say hello.

“Everybody was throughout him, like, ‘Oh my god, your accent is so cute,’” she says. “Everybody was obsessive about him, making a circle round him.”

Andrea sat again. She didn’t need to be one of many crowd. She needed a significant, one-on-one chat with Lewis.

Later that night she frightened she’d missed her likelihood. However now that Lewis was a part of the gang, he and Andrea had loads of time to get to know one another over the following few days.

“We step by step frolicked a bit of bit by a bit of bit,” says Lewis. “Then, after every week, we began realizing we preferred one another.”

“I imply, I knew I preferred him,” says Andrea, laughing. “He needed to notice.”

They shared their first kiss within the rain. They went for walks on the seaside. They swam within the pool collectively.

However their happiness was tempered by the information that their summer season romance could be fleeting. Lewis lived in Eire, Andrea lived within the US. Certain, they might try to preserve in touch. However they have been youngsters with no means to journey internationally to go to each other. It was arduous to see the way it may work out.

“He informed me he liked me proper earlier than he acquired his bus to the airport,” says Andrea. “And I hadn’t even thought of love. At that time, I used to be 14. I used to be like, ‘What? He loves me. This implies he’s my old flame. What is going on?’”

Andrea was so overwhelmed by the thought that she didn’t say the phrases again till Lewis had already began to stroll away. She stated them anyway, below her breath.

Now on totally different continents, Andrea and Lewis stayed in contact by way of Fb Messenger and Skype.

It was doable at first. However then Lewis traveled to the Irish countryside with a bunch of pals and had no web entry whereas he was there.

When Andrea didn’t hear from him, she assumed he’d forgotten about her.

“He didn’t let me know that he wasn’t going to have Wi-Fi,” she says. “I simply thought I used to be being ghosted.”

Though Andrea felt she and Lewis “have been purported to be in love ceaselessly,” she figured he noticed her as only a summer season fling.

So, she despatched him a message that was extra like a “paragraph,” basically saying: “That is truly not okay, what you’re doing. I’m not going to take care of it.’”

Within the message Andrea sounded definitive, like she knew what she needed and what she wouldn’t put up with. However in actuality, she was a 14-year-old going by means of her first heartbreak. For months afterward, Andrea cried every single day.

“For the primary good yr, I used to be actually head over heels, completely in love,” she recollects. “Even like a yr later, I bear in mind I had a New 12 months’s kiss with somebody, and I felt so unhealthy. I used to be like, ‘It’s not Lewis, I’m betraying Lewis.’ Although, actually, we hadn’t been collectively for months. Nevertheless it felt like a betrayal.”

Time went on.

“Clearly, after years go by, it turns into a bit of bit much less intense,” says Andrea.

Besides, she nonetheless thought of Lewis typically. They every remained vaguely conscious of each other, aware about social media updates however not understanding a lot else.

For some time, Lewis went by means of a interval of sending Andrea fixed Snapchats. They left her conflicted.

“I bear in mind, it could simply carry again all the sentiments,” she says. “It was actually upsetting as a result of I used to be like, ‘We’re not collectively. It’s been years.’”

Andrea despatched Lewis a textual content, asking him to rein within the Snapchats: “You’re a blast from the previous that I don’t need to bear in mind,” she wrote.

Regardless of this, Andrea says she was nonetheless “completely obsessed” with Lewis. That’s why she’d typically discover herself interested by summer season 2014 and daydreaming. She wouldn’t dwell on the unhappy ending, and would simply revisit the reminiscences of the completely happy, sun-drenched haze.

Lewis didn’t absolutely let go of Andrea both.

“All through the years, randomly, Andrea would pop into my head,” he says.

On one such event, in 2017, Lewis typed a word to himself in his iPhone: “I’ll marry Andrea Camila.”

The motion felt instinctual. The word felt like a premonition.

Regardless of this sense of certainty, Lewis didn’t attain out to Andrea. By then, it had been years since they’d messaged straight. Lewis simply felt weirdly positive he and Andrea would simply reunite, finally.

Reduce to spring 2018. Andrea was 18 and had simply graduated highschool. Lewis was 20 and halfway by means of a level at Dublin Metropolis College.

Wanting again, neither is sort of positive the way it began. However, immediately, out of the blue, they began messaging once more.

“And on that very same day that we began messaging, I used to be like ‘I’ll come to Florida, after which you’ll be able to come to Europe, after which we are able to go interrailing, we are able to journey throughout Europe,’” recollects Lewis.

“We made all these plans actually inside an hour of beginning to textual content once more,” says Andrea.

“And we truly went by means of with them,“ provides Lewis.

Lewis booked a flight to Florida for July 2018. Over the 2 months, he and Andrea messaged forwards and backwards continuously. Then they moved on to common FaceTime calls.

“We have been having a tremendous time,” says Andrea. “We actually grew to become finest pals in that period of time.”

At first, Andrea was positive they have been flirting. She figured Lewis flying to Florida to go to her was for positive a grand gesture.

“That is going to be romantic,” she thought. “We’re so cute.”

Then, because the date of his arrival acquired ever nearer, Andrea began doubting herself.

“Possibly he doesn’t see this the best way I see this,” she thought. “Possibly he simply desires to be pals. I don’t need this to be bizarre.”

Lewis had the identical anxieties.

“You overthink issues,” he says. “Particularly once you’re in that speaking part, you overthink every thing.”

Nonetheless, Lewis imagined that when Andrea noticed him on the airport, she’d run into his arms. He anticipated it’d be a romantic reunion, reflective of all of the years they’d spent aside. On the airplane over, he appeared ahead to the second.

As an alternative, after they noticed one another once more at arrivals, Andrea performed it cool.

“I used to be identical to, ‘Hey, man. How are you doing?’” she recollects. “I simply didn’t need to give him the impression that I used to be the lady obsessing over him.”

Andrea was additionally a bit flustered as a result of Lewis caught her simply as she was about to move into the airport lavatory. In the long run, the second wasn’t what both of them anticipated.

“It was undoubtedly awkward,” says Lewis. “I feel it was scary and awkward and nerve wracking.”

“Once you’re speaking on FaceTime, I don’t know, it’s such a distinct factor than being in individual with somebody,” says Andrea. “Since we hadn’t seen one another for 4 years, it was identical to, ‘How can we act? Are we purported to be as flirty and cute as we’re on FaceTime? Or do we have to deal with this as like a brand new factor, form of, as a result of it is a actual, in-person encounter?’”

These questions continued to whirl round Andrea’s head as she drove Lewis again to her dad’s lakeside cottage, and confirmed him round the home.

However, by the night, Lewis and Andrea have been mendacity collectively on the dock, trying up on the evening sky collectively, beginning to really feel comfortable.

“We simply laid there on these blankets, and have been stargazing.” says Andrea. “We talked for hours. And so it grew to become actually snug. Nevertheless it was nonetheless not romantic. Neither of us was desirous to take that step but.”

Over the following couple of days, each night, Lewis would depart the visitor room he was staying in and go into Andrea’s room. They’d sit collectively, watching anime on her laptop computer. These moments at all times felt charged.

“I feel he’d at all times be about to kiss me, however then flip away and never kiss me,” says Andrea. “Then, lastly, at some point he kissed me. I feel it was a few week after.”

“I used to be increase the braveness to formally ask her out,” says Lewis. “I don’t know why I acquired so nervous, it took me so lengthy.”

When he truly stated the phrases aloud, it was Friday July 13, 2018. Later, Andrea and Lewis appeared over their Fb messages and outdated photographs from summer season 2014. They did the mathematics and realized they’d met on a Friday the thirteenth too.

“It’s a loopy coincidence,” says Andrea. “For different folks. It’s an unfortunate day. However for us, it’s actually the luckiest factor.”

For a few days, all of it felt like destiny. Andrea and Lewis have been giddy with happiness.

However then, as Lewis ready to move again to Eire, Andrea panicked. Sure, they’d the European interrailing journey deliberate. However then what? She wasn’t positive she may take the heartbreak of a relationship with Lewis ending another time.

“I used to be like, ‘It’s not going to work. It doesn’t make sense. Clarify it to me, how’s it going to work? You reside in Eire, I dwell over right here. This doesn’t make sense in any respect,’” Andrea recollects.

“He began crying. He was like, ‘I wasn’t interested by all this stuff. I simply need to be with you.’ He mainly proposed to me. He mainly stated, ‘All I do know is I need to spend the remainder of my life with you.’”

At this – and the tears – Andrea was completely shocked.

“It was so intense,” she recollects. “I believed I used to be the one who was head over heels for him, now he’s actually professing his complete like to me.”

Andrea felt like she wanted to carry a dose of actuality to the state of affairs.

“Maintain on a second, man,” she stated. “What are you saying? You need to marry me? We’re simply 18 and 20.”

“I wasn’t interested by the entire methods it wouldn’t work,” replied Lewis. “I simply need to make it work and be with you.”

At this, Andrea began crying.

“You already know what, you’re proper,” she stated, as soon as her sobs had subsided. “We’re going to make this work. And it’s going to occur.”

The dialog felt like a promise. Later that summer season, as deliberate, Andrea and Lewis went interrailing collectively, having fun with touring by means of Europe by prepare. Then, they dedicated to the lengthy distance, transatlantic relationship.

The couple made it “bearable,” as Andrea places it, by at all times planning after they have been subsequent going to see one another.

Andrea spent all her free time babysitting and dealing as a supply driver to economize for flights. When Lewis wasn’t learning, he labored in a retailer, and scoured the web for low value flights.

Nonetheless, the next yr, in 2019, Andrea and Lewis began to battle with the gap.

“It simply didn’t make sense to be aside,” says Andrea. “We have been simply aligned, we would have liked to be collectively.”

On a whim, Andrea booked a flight to Eire. She quickly moved in with Lewis and his household for 3 months. His household welcomed her, whereas Andrea’s mother and father have been “supportive” of her determination.

“They actually preferred Lewis,” she says. “They’d met him that summer season, when he got here in 2018. They usually had additionally met him in 2014 a bit of bit. So that they knew him, and so they knew he was man.”

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When, after three months in Eire, Andrea’s visa ran out, they swapped and Lewis visited Andrea in Florida for 3 months.

This began a sample that continued for some time – they’d alternate three months in one another’s residence nations, sometimes assembly in different locations as a substitute.

They have been each curious about filmmaking, and round this time began filming YouTube videos collectively. At first, these movies didn’t get many views. However Andrea and Lewis’s viewers engagement was good from the start. Viewers gave the impression to be invested of their chemistry and love story.

The couple determined to dedicate as a lot time as they might to content material creating, working half time jobs on the aspect to fund their endeavors. Lewis dropped out of faculty.

“We have been like, ‘Why would we make a plan B? We don’t must go to school to do that.’ We all know we love making movies. So let’s simply solely try this,” says Andrea.

It was within the early days of the pandemic, says Andrea, that the gamble paid off and the couple “blew up” on social media.

“As a result of everybody was on their telephone. Everybody was on the web, and that’s when folks began discovering us,” says Andrea. “And we simply began getting extra followers. We went on TikTok, and it was loopy.”

From there, Andrea and Lewis began sharing updates on their lives on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, together with in 2021, the second Lewis requested Andrea to marry him.

A proposal and a marriage

On the day of the proposal, Lewis organized a jam-packed day and scavenger hunt round Florida – packing in every thing from jet snowboarding, indoor skydiving, to, lastly, a seaside picnic.

Lewis pretended the picnic was a social media model deal to throw Andrea off the scent. When the reality was revealed, Andrea welled up.

“It was undoubtedly very emotional,” she says. “We have been each bawling.”

In January 2023, Andrea and Lewis acquired married at Azulik Uh Could, a recent artwork museum in a Mexican jungle. Naturally, it was a Friday 13 – it appeared solely proper. The couple say the marriage day was “a dream.”

In her vows to Lewis, Andrea voiced how, whereas she was excited to marry him, her general feeling was a way of calm and certainty.

“What I really feel is simply pure,” she stated to him. “It’s not like, ‘Wow every thing goes to alter.’ It’s simply pure.”

In the present day, reflecting on the marriage day, Andrea says she simply felt “that is simply what’s meant to be taking place and what’s meant to be. It simply felt superb to share that with all of our family and friends.”

In the present day, a number of months into married life, Andrea and Lewis are trying in the direction of the long run – a future they count on to be outlined by journey.

Come September, they’re planning to go to all 48 contiguous US states in an outdated American college bus they’ve been busy changing. Longterm, the couple think about splitting their time between the US, Puerto Rico and Eire, whereas additionally spending loads of time on the street.

Andrea and Lewis are nonetheless younger, at 23 and 25, however subsequent yr will mark the 10-year anniversary of the summer season they met on trip.

“We at all times take into consideration what would 14 and 16 yr outdated us suppose, in the event that they noticed us married,” says Lewis. “We have been simply on trip, and we simply fancied one another.”

“I can’t recover from it,” says Andrea. “And each time I give it some thought, I really feel prefer it’s simply magic or one thing. It simply doesn’t make sense, however in one of the simplest ways.”

Andrea and Lewis additionally discover it surreal to think about their 4 years aside, their surprising reunion, and their interval of lengthy distance.

They’re grateful, says Andrea, that “we discovered one another after.”

“I feel it’s like a bizarre magic factor,” she says.

“Clearly, over time, it was just a few magnetic pull in the direction of one another,” says Lewis.