SINGAPORE - It started with a miss.
But then came the kiss.
In a romantic nutshell, Mike Kasem and Miss Mindy Chia are officially an item.
The pair met when we asked single women to write in to win Valentine's Day dates with the US DJ and fellow bachelor British-Chinese TV host Paul Foster in February.
Since embarking on this journey to meet his soulmate via The New Paper's date-a-celeb series, Kasem, 39, had his eyes set on Miss Chia, 32.
Her picture, he said, was stunning and he ended up picking her for the final one-on-one date after his group dinner with seven women.
But things did not go smoothly initially as they had reservations about each other.
Kasem said he had felt that Miss Chia was too shy.
On their one-on-one date, he was frustrated and bemused with the fact that she had refused to put her hand on his shoulder when taking a picture.
Miss Chia, who works in the service industry, admitted that she thought Kasem didn't put in enough effort to spend time with her after the series wrapped up on Valentine's Day.
The dates that they had gone on since then were to clubs where they had drinks, but never got to spend much quality time with each other.
Things came to a head on March 12 when she called him and they had a "two-hour-long debate".
Kasem told TNP: "I wouldn't say we had an argument, but we really talked honestly about everything.
"I told her that this wasn't going to work because there was an undeniable cultural gap between us.
"I'm much more Westernised and told her she was simply too shy.
"She then surprised me when she said that I wasn't trying hard enough. She was right.
"So we agreed to set aside the next two weeks and saw each other whenever we could to see if this would work."
The very next day, after they had THE conversation, the pair went on a date at Great World City where she accompanied him to cut his hair.
When he walked her to the taxi stand, magic happened.
Said Kasem: "I was saying bye to her near the escalator and I expected the usual good-bye from her.
"Like you know 'peace brother, I'm out of here' kind of thing.
"She kissed me on the lips. I was blown away.
"Things went great after that.
"It's like for us, we went through the marriage phase first before we got to the honeymoon phase."
Miss Chia said that she took the initiative to make the first move because that was her way of showing him that she was serious about breaking down her walls in front of him.
"I like everything about Mike, he's very manly and kind.
"My favourite thing is to rub his nose or smell his face, he smells very nice.
"I even like his 'dementia', Mike can't remember things like birthdays or names of places."
Warming his heart
Nowadays, she stays over often at Kasem's house and has warmed his heart by cleaning his house for him. In the morning, while he makes breakfast, she sits on his bed and folds his laundry.
His pet peeve, however, is that she has taken the liberty of decorating his house with pink bathroom floor mats, pink soaps and pink and red towels.
He said he has poked fun at the girlish items, but has left them intact.
Retorted Miss Chia: "What frustrates me about Mike is that after I have cleaned up his house and it's spotless, he will walk right in with his shoes on. That and how he's so grouchy when he's hungry."
But she started smiling again when she thought about how romantic her boyfriend is.
The sweetest thing that Kasem has done for his lady love is to, well, become a "vampire".
Miss Chia laughed as she recalled how she had kept telling Kasem that she had yearned for him to be "Edward Cullen", the brooding, lovelorn vampire character played by British actor Robert Pattinson in the hit Hollywood movie saga, Twilight.
To fulfil her fantasy, he surprised her when he ordered a huge bouquet of flowers to be sent to her hotel room during her work trip to New York two weeks ago.
On the card, it read: "I will look quite old in 1,000 years, but I will still be your ONE and only vampire. Yours truly, Edward."
Said Kasem: "I like being romantic and doing romantic stuff for her.
"Mindy is sweet, kind and hardworking. She offered to iron my shirt the other day and I found out she had no idea how but wanted to learn it just to do it for me.
"Looks-wise, she's obviously stunning."
The couple had even gone on their first trip together to Phuket early last month.
On impulse, Miss Chia had offered to book air tickets to the holiday resort for the weekend as her beau had told her that he was stressed out at work.
She paid for the flight while he paid for everything else and the beautiful island sunsets they witnessed together were worth every cent.
He has also introduced Miss Chia to his best friends, DJ Vernetta Lopez and her husband Wayne Gladwin, and the two couples had a blast attending the World Gourmet Summit together at Resorts World Sentosa last month.
On meeting Miss Chia, Lopez, 39, said; "She's a lovely girl, shy at first but totally sweet.
"As we get to know her more, we're finding out that she's an awesomely cool chick.
"Mike and Mindy are so cute together. I think they take good care of each other."
Both had the same answers when asked whether wedding bells would ring anytime soon.
Said Kasem: "If I didn't think Mindy was potential marriage material, I wouldn't be dating her.
"My sister thinks it's really cute that we met through a newspaper dating series. At our ages, Mindy and I take relationships seriously."
Miss Chia agreed: "It's too early to say if we're going to make it to the end.
"But Mike is very promising. I'm looking for something serious in this as well."
Quipped Kasem: "I can foresee it. 'Will you, Mindy, take Mike to be your husband?'
"She'll be like, 'Okay lah'."
Kasem has plans to fly Miss Chia to the US to meet his family at the end of the year.
For now, his goal is to get her on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
"She hasn't had a chance to ride my Harley because I don't have a spare helmet," he said.
"I asked her if she wanted me to get her a pink helmet.
"I cracked up because she said 'no', she didn't want to look like an Ah Lian."
Get The New Paper for more stories.
