LOVE STORIES
Bartender didn't forget coworker he had a crush on

By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mark Taylor, 42, and Lisa Costa, 34, tied the knot June 12 at the Lanikuhonua Estate at Ko Olina. Photo courtesy of Taylor family

When she arrived at the Chinatown restaurant to pick up her food, the voice recognized her first.

"Lisa Costa," he said, remembering her from when they worked at Compadres Mexican restaurant seven years earlier.

"Mark?" she said. (She says now she probably didn't even remember his last name — Taylor — but he definitely remembered her. She was the one he had a crush on.)

Reconnected after years apart, the former coworkers chatted for a few minutes, feeling a few sparks but recognizing their bad timing. He asked her what she was doing that night, and she told him she had a date. So he told her to have a good time, and they said goodbye.

Two weeks later, Costa went back to Indigo with her girlfriends. It was crowded, and Taylor was bartending. Amid all the people, he found time to ask how her date went, and once he realized she was still available, he asked if he could take her to dinner. He handed her a slip of paper from the cash register to write down her phone number.

Costa looked at all of the register slips with people's tabs that lined the bar.

"I thought, 'Oh, he's just going to lose this,' " she said. But Taylor wasn't about to lose track of her again.

He called, and they had their first date on Cinco de Mayo. It began with dinner at Sunset Grill and ended with drinks and dancing at Compadres.

On their second date, out to see an art exhibit and have lunch, they got lost. Getting lost had been a contentious issue between Costa and a boyfriend to whom she was once engaged. But with Taylor, it wasn't a big deal. Costa was relieved.

After they had been dating about a month, she had a trip to Europe planned with her girlfriends. She was going to be gone for a month. Things were going so great with Taylor that Costa actually thought about not going. She went anyway, but she sent him postcards and talked to him on the phone every day.

After that, they were inseparable. There was just one thing: Costa wanted to move to San Francisco.

She was a Kailua girl and a 1987 Maryknoll grad and had told him back on their first date that she always wanted to move to the Bay Area. He was raised in Sacramento but moved to Hawai'i a decade ago and loved it here.

"I would have never left Hawai'i," he said. "You fall in love, and that changes things."

So they moved to San Francisco in 2000 and moved in together. She took a job processing data for pharmaceutical trials. He returned to the restaurant business.

They celebrated their anniversary each Cinco de Mayo. They had talked about marriage and even went through couples' counseling to decide whether to stay together. By Cinco de Mayo 2003, Costa was beginning to wonder why Taylor hadn't proposed yet. So she proposed herself. She woke up and asked her boyfriend: "I'd like to know if you'd like to marry me."

He asked for the day to think about it.

When he got home that night, he told her his answer: "It's always been yes."

Taylor had never been one to look at marriage as an important part of solidifying a relationship. But actually getting married changed his perspective.

They were wed June 12 at Lanikuhonua, a beachfront estate at Ko Olina, before 100 guests who mingled at the food stations and listened to strolling musicians and a band. The bride, who had taken hula lessons for three months before the wedding, danced to "Ka Lehua I Milia" for her groom. It's a song about a flower caressed by rain.

Lisa Costa Taylor, 34, and Mark, 42, escaped to Maui for two days after the wedding before returning to San Francisco. The two, who each have part-Portuguese heritage, plan a honeymoon in Portugal in October. And they're thinking about moving again. The Islands just might lure them back here.

Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships. If you'd like her to tell your love story, write to tleach@honoluluadvertiser.com, call 525-8026 or mail your photo and details to Love Stories, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802.