Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — The first time Christina Burton met Gabriel Solberg, she alienated him.
Burton, a 30-year-old dancer at the time, was living and working in Los Angeles, waiting at JFK to get home from an audition in New York.
It was early in the morning, and the airport terminal was empty. There was a long row of benches in front of her, but a man had put his bag on the floor in front of him and sat right next to her, which annoyed her.
This was Solberg, who was 34 at the time, on his way back from visiting family in Europe.
Tired of making stops at the airport at night, he paid little attention to his surroundings.
“This guy has no spatial awareness,” Burton recalls.
The two strangers were sitting so close that Burton could see the seat number printed on Solberg’s ticket when she realized he was sitting next to her on the plane too, which only made her uncomfortable.
She wasn’t in the mood to sit for 6 hours next to someone who had no sense of personal space.
It was July 2018, and given the moment Solberg is quick to fend for himself, he remembers events a little differently.
“That’s from her perspective,” Solberg told CNN with a laugh. “When I went into that building, it was so crowded, I barely got an empty seat, and I just sat there for five minutes.”
Burton reports that Solberg sat up briefly because he jumped out of his seat the moment he announced his boarding, confirming her suspicions about his arrogant nature.
When Burton eventually boarded her Alaska Airlines flight and saw Solberg already settled into his seat next to her, she quickly tried to put her headphones on to avoid any conversation, but she wasn’t quick enough, and he started talking to her right away.
Indeed, Solberg did not notice Burton in the passenger hall, but he noticed her as soon as she got on the plane, and approached his seat row, noting that her smile startled him.
With a smile, he said to her, “Welcome, weren’t you sitting next to me in the hall?” Burton replied, with a smile on her face, “You’re the one sitting next to me.”
Burton’s first impression of Solberg as arrogant and selfish quickly faded, and the two began chatting.
romance on the plane
The captain announced over a loudspeaker that the plane was delayed and likely not to leave the airport for two hours. Burton and Solberg were seated in two aisle seats, while the passenger by the window fell asleep almost immediately, so they felt alone.
While waiting for the plane to take off, Solberg and Burton were moving from the stage of acquaintance to the broader topics.
“We talked about everything,” Solberg recalls.
From their jobs, where they live, to why they travel to Los Angeles.
And the duo discovered that the love of travel brings them together. Solberg is of French and American descent, grew up in Germany, so he’s spent his life traveling, while Burton’s work as a dancer has taken her all over the world, from performances on cruise ships, to tours across the United States.
When the flight finally took off, the duo felt as if they had known each other for years.
Despite watching movies on board, they chatted and laughed throughout the flight.
“I told her how terrible her movie choices are,” Solberg says.
“We were trying to see Planet of the Apes, which I thought was a good movie but he said it was the dumbest movie he’d ever seen,” Burton recalls.
She was fascinated by Solberg’s openness and humour, and he was clearly a nice person.
The six-hour trip allowed them to have more serious conversations as well, as they touched on spiritual topics, religion, and their outlook on life.
Solberg explained that at the beginning of the flight it was clear that they were strangers, then the passenger in the window seat slept throughout the flight and woke up to find them drowning in conversation.
However, they were wary for different reasons.
Sloelberg got out of a long relationship about 5 months ago, spent the summer visiting his loved ones in Europe, and when he met Burton he was on his way to Seattle to visit his family, and he says romance was out of his mind.
“My attitude to relationships was, they don’t suit me,” he recalls.
Similarly, Burton says she wasn’t looking for a relationship either.
“I’ve never dated anyone before, I’ve been living my life as a single woman with a good friend of mine in Los Angeles,” she says.
The eight-hour “date” on a plane was a surprise to both of them, although it wasn’t an instant infatuation. They felt that their communication was natural and easy.
“It kind of made sense,” Solberg said.
When the flight landed and the passengers disembarked at Los Angeles Airport, Solberg and Burton prepared to go their way.
“I told her, ‘You know something’s going on here,'” Solberg recalls. “So I’ll be back in a week, and we’ll look at it together.”
“Personally, I didn’t think that would happen,” Burton explained. “I knew there was some kind of connection between us because I felt that,” she said. Before she went on her way, Solberg hugged her, and though Burton thought she might never see him again, she texted her sister and friends to tell them what had happened.
“I knew I was going back,” Solberg says, texting his brother, “I met the girl of my dreams.”
A week passed, and Solberg returned to Los Angeles, and invited Burton to plan the meeting. This contact lasted between two and three hours.
Solberg remembers how awkward it was, as he had just spoken on the phone to someone who still classified strange, as easily as if he had known her for years.
“It’s very strange, as if we’ve known each other for a long time,” he recalls.
Burton suggested going out to dinner and a movie, and Solberg said it was a long way to see her and so they should do something more interesting, and he suggested renting a cabin in the Santa Monica Mountains, California.
Burton was excited to see Solberg again, but her friends and family were really worried about the idea of her traveling to a secluded place with a man she had just met.
Although the property was more rustic than Solberg expected, the two of them had a great time there.
On the day Solberg was supposed to travel to New York, the two went out to lunch and discussed the course of their relationship, and it was hard for them to part again.
“We were frustrated,” Solberg recalls. The two decided that instead of saying goodbye, she would accompany Burton Solberg to New York to continue the adventure there.
As for Solberg, he admits that while he says his relationship with Burton was not official, his actions “didn’t really reflect those words”.
However, Burton made it clear that her career as a dancer came first. When her agent called her about an exciting audition opportunity, she cuts the trip to New York and flew back to Los Angeles early.
Burton and Solberg discuss how her career has given her the flexibility to live anywhere. In the end, the two only spent two months traveling back and forth to see each other before Burton decided to move with Solberg to New York.
In October 2019, about a year after they first met on the plane, Burton and Solberg announced their engagement while on vacation on the Italian coast.
Solberg almost forgot to take the ring with him, and Burton’s mother had to meet him at the airport to hand him over without Burton knowing.
When the two decided to book an engagement photo session with photographer Tyler Petty, the location was obvious, the airport, specifically in Terminal A at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., a transportation hub with a vast, historic terminal designed as the perfect backdrop.
Their sweet encounter was also reflected in the wedding invitations, which were designed to resemble airline tickets. Burton and Solberg planned a magical wedding in St. Lucia.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has put plans on hold, but in recent months, the two have started planning their wedding again. The preparations are made more complicated by the fact that Burton is currently working in Germany.
The duo admit that long distances aren’t easy, but they both enjoy watching each other develop in their careers. They are in agreement about their long-term goals and ambitions.
