"I interviewed him for a job for my company," she said.

Long story short?

"He didn't get the job," she said, "but he got something better."

Even after she called to turn him down for the job, Backman, a property manager, suggested that if she was ever in Hawai'i Kai, they should go to lunch.

A couple of months later, he called her to arrange a lunch date.

And so began a six-year courtship.

From the beginning, "I guess there was something about her that I found attractive," Backman said. "I was comfortable with her."

He liked that she was a good listener, that she paid attention to details, that she wasn't pushy, and "she had this kind of zany laugh I thought was really funny." They discovered they had the same kind of sense of humor.

She fell for his thoughtfulness, like the notes and flowers he left on her windshield. And she fondly remembers the time he sent her a bouquet of flowers the day after she fell off her bicycle and had a bad case of road rash.

They also got over their differences. He's from Waipahu. She's from Palolo Valley. He's a morning person. She likes to stay up late. She cries at the mention of anything sentimental. He's a practical sort who's handy around the house. She learned to accept him as an early riser. He acquired a taste for her mother's stuffed bittermelon (which he now has the opportunity to sample at every family gathering).

Love even led Leong, a "townie," to move out to Mililani to start a life with him.

The evening of her 41st birthday last October started with a frantic search for a restaurant and ended with a wedding proposal at Verbano Pastaria in 'Aiea. Leong cried into her napkin.

"The thing about Verna is she always cries," 44-year-old Backman said. "I was worried that people around us would think we broke up."

Instead, they got engaged. They wed Aug. 22 in a morning Chinese-style ceremony at the Hale Koa Hotel and honeymooned on an Alaskan cruise.

"It was small and simple," the bride said of the wedding. "That was my theme."

It was a first marriage for Leong (now Verna Backman) and a second one for Tom Backman.

In this relationship, he says he's found a "certain kind of openness, trust and acceptance" that he never experienced before.

He also says he feels as if he's gained a family.

"They're very friendly, accepting people, they all cook really good food, and they're very close," he said. "There's just no pretense at all. You know, what you see is what you get."

She's fond of his family as well. They even had a family honeymoon, with some of the groom's family members on the same Alaskan cruise.

You can't get much closer than that.