Devin Ellise Miller recalled first meeting Rieanna Katherine Stewart at a bar in Detroit in February 2022. But Ms. Stewart remembers it differently.w500

“I have a knack for remembering people’s faces,” Ms. Stewart said. “I knew I had met her before.”

In August 2019, Ms. Miller’s friend, Nevin McRay, had taken her to a potluck dinner for his kickball team. Ms. Miller was introduced to the group, but she and Ms. Stewart didn’t connect one on one.

At the Detroit bar, Ms. Stewart said she recalled thinking, “This girl is so hot,” when she saw Ms. Miller. Ms. Stewart had no problem interrupting a conversation Ms. Miller was having with the bartender.

Ms. Miller was intrigued. “She kind of did this ‘up down’ of me,” she said. “She was flirting, and so I flirted back,” Ms. Miller said. Ms. Stewart didn’t mention the previous meeting until later.

It was an instant connection, Ms. Stewart said: In “that moment, we both left time and space. There was no one around me during that conversation.”

The two exchanged Instagram handles, and Ms. Stewart messaged her later that night.

“‘We could meet Nevin for a drink or for a walk. Or we could ditch Nevin,’” she recalled messaging. “I didn’t want to assume she was queer.”

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