Imagine you're a young airline employee embarking on your dream career and enjoying your best single life.

I had just started working as the gate staff at the airport, was not looking for any kind of relationship. I was freshly out of college. I had moved in with my friends, was having a good time.

That's Hunter Smith, recalling the summer of 2017. Back then, Hunter has just secured his dream job at his hometown airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Getting this job at the gate was the perfect foot in the aviation door. Then one day, fate handed Hunter an unusual assignment, passing some paperwork to a jet pilot on a soon to depart flight to Florida.

Which typically was not my job. I did not normally do that.

'He passed the paperwork to the captain and then waited for the all-clear to disembark. Also standing at the front of the aircraft that day, was one of the flight attendants. This man smiled at Hunter and Hunter smiled back.

And we just started talking and things kind of found a place from there.

This flight attendant was John Lihas. He immediately took note of Hunter.

I was constantly there, weekly, and I never saw him when I flew into Pittsburgh.

The two men introduced themselves, struck up conversation, chatting a bit about flying and their respective careers so far.

It was very short. We were boarding and.

The plane had to leave. So we really only had like a five minute window to like meet each other. We never thought this small conversation was gonna go anywhere after that. So many faces and people you meet every single day at the airport. But I don't know, I just had a weird feeling about this guy, a good feeling.

'I'm Francesca Street, CNN Travel Journalist, and this is Chance Encounters, a podcast about the incredible connections we make while traveling. This show is based on my series of online articles for CNN.com, where I interview ordinary people about their extraordinary travel-based love stories and tales of friendship. In this podcast series we're chronicling the summer loves that turned out to be more than just a vacation romance. Today we're starting where so many important journeys begin, at the airport.

Airline workers Hunter and John had just crossed paths. They shared a smile on the plane, chatting for a while, were intrigued by each other. So Hunter decided on the obvious next course of action, a spot of online sleuthing.

I'm gonna Facebook stalk him. You know what? I'm just gonna send the friend request and see what happens.

And I saw the Facebook request from him and I was like, huh, because I really don't add people that I really didn't know like right away. And so I accepted. I was like, huh, it could be something you never know. I think the first question I asked him, I was like, do you always stop your flight crew?

Do you always stalk your flight attendants? I remember that.

And it just started from there.

Over the next few weeks, Hunter and John chatted about their shared love of travel, realized they had a bunch of other hobbies in common, and established that they shared a similar positive outlook on life. The two had similar backgrounds as well. They both had divorced parents, and coincidentally, both had one parent who lived in Pittsburgh and one who lived Tampa, Florida.

What are the odds that I met this person? What are odds both of our families live in the exact two same cities? So it was very strange how that all worked out. And then one day I got a message out of the blue from John and he said, hey, I know this is kind of forward. You can totally tell me if you're not comfortable with this idea, but I have a layover in Myrtle Beach, which is like a two hour flight from Pittsburgh. And he was like, I'd love to fly you down here to have dinner with you and get to know you more.

This will be perfect and just have a first date because I don't know the next time I'm going back to Pittsburgh. So I was like, I just did it. I was like, would you like to come down and hang out?

Hunter was tempted, but he was also kind of hesitant.

I'm like, should I go? I don't really know this guy. What if we don't click in person like we did?

Will Hunter fly across the country for a first date with John? We'll find out after the break.

This is Chance Encounters. I'm Francesca Street. Before the break, flight attendant John had invited fellow airline employee Hunter to fly down and meet him for a weekend getaway. Kind of a bold move for a first date.

And then he finally like said yes, and then we planned it, and everything worked out perfectly when he came down. You know, I picked him up and we just...

We went to dinner, we went to the boardwalk. It was very magical. And we did end up posting a picture on Facebook on that little trip. So I remember people started to ask, oh, who is that person you're with?

What was going through your head as those two days were coming to a close and you realized that you were having a good time?

I was kind of sad, actually, because we were living in two different cities. I didn't know the next time I was going to see him. So strategically, we were just kind of talking about how can we make this work? We came up with plans of, all right, you're going to come to Pittsburgh these days. I'll make sure I'm off on these days, so it was actually nice. I actually liked, like, the long distance part of it at the time, because it gave us time to really appreciate our time with each other.

It made it interesting.

About a year after he'd first met John, Hunter left the gate behind and started working as a flight attendant. And with this super exciting opportunity came another really exciting step.

And once I got hired to become a flight attendant, we decided to move in together. We moved to a new city. We got our first apartment. And that's kind of when things like really stepped it up to the next level. And even then I still couldn't believe like, wow, this is crazy how this all happened. And everything fell into place perfectly. We're working at the same job now. We're in the same base. Our families are in the place. Like everything fell perfectly into place.

And did you ever end up on the same flight, like scheduled to work on the same flight? Did that ever occur?

Yes, the first time that happened, I was on call and I saw the trip and I saw John's name on there and I ran into the living room from our bedroom. I was like, John, you're never going to believe it. Guess what trip I got today? And he was like thinking I got something like international or something really great, like, no, I'm on the trip with you.

And it felt nice going to work together and actually spending three full days together. And, you know, spending time at the layover hotel together, eating dinner together. It was just like, okay, we can do this.

And this job, like, when you work together, it's almost like you're on vacation. Yeah, you are working through the day, but once you're done with the day you're at the hotel, you can go to the pool, go out to dinner. It's kind of like you are on a mini vacation when you're together at work.

John and Hunter settled into a new routine in Michigan. They loved spending time together, both working and not working, and they were soon talking about marriage. And as the couple started mapping out an upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, Hunter started thinking this was the perfect opportunity to ask John to marry him.

So I was talking to John's mom and I told her that I was gonna propose to him. So John had no idea that it was coming and I knew for sure that was something I wanted to do. So we went down to Puerto Rico and I think it was the second day we were there was when I did it. We went down by the water.

And I remember I had a coffee in my hand. I was looking out in the water.

You were not prepared.

And then I turned around and he's on one knee and I'm like, what are you doing? And I see a ring. I was like, oh my God. The real thing. And I was just completely shocked. And of course, you know, I said yes, and I was like, Oh my god, this is actually happening. And for hours, I'm like, Oh my God.

I think we were both, like, in shock but we were both so happy.

It's just so surreal. It's like, when you think of love, it's so cliche. It's, like, okay, you date, and then you talk to people who've been married 30, 40, 50 years, and I'm like, okay, if it happens, it happens. But it actually happens.

But when it happens to you, it like, so nice. So we decided we did not want to do a big wedding and we both kind of decided let's just get married at like a courthouse and then let's take this money that we're going to spend on a wedding and let's go travel. So we did a super small wedding on the west coast. We brought our parents like two friends and then the next week after that we decided to just do this like lavish European vacation. Like traveling is the most important thing to both of us in our lives pretty much. We spent like almost a week in Paris because I had never been to Paris at the time.

It was also my 30th birthday.

It was his birthday, too.

It was my birthday and honeymoon.

All in one.

And we got upgraded to first class and it was just beautiful. It was the middle of winter and when we landed in Paris.

It was snowing in Paris.

You saw all the snow and we went to the Eiffel and just snow everywhere. It was like...

So magical.

And since then we've literally traveled the entire world. We've been to Europe, we've been to Asia, we been to South America, like all together. So, that's been amazing.

And if somebody was reading your story, what would you want them to kind of take away from it? Like, is there a particular message or idea that you'd hope that kind of come away with and maybe take into their own life?

Just make the most of your life. When I look back, I just never in a million years thought that this is where we together would be after that like chance encounter. Like it makes me want to cry. It's just like an overwhelming like happiness. How did we get here? Like I met you for five minutes on the airplane when I wasn't even supposed to. And now we're living in this city together and you're sitting across from me on the plane and we're working together. And you never think when you meet someone for the first time like that, that it's going to go this far. So it is kind of surreal and it honestly just like makes you so happy. Just those five minutes with a stranger can totally change your life.

I always believe it's always meant to be.

'Thank you to Hunter Smith-Lihas and John Lihas for sharing their Chance Encounter. If you have your own Chance Encounters to share, I'd love to hear it. You can share your story with CNN in the contact form linked in our episode description. This is Chance Encounters, reported, hosted and written by me, Francesca Street. Dan Bloom is our showrunner and co-writer. Sofía Sánchez and Kyra Dahring are the producers. Dan Dzula is technical director and Matt Dempsey is technical production manager. Steve Lickteig is executive producer of CNN Podcasts. For mor Chance Encounters, check out CNN.com/Travel. CNN Travel's global editor is Barry Neild. Special thanks to producers Lori Galarreta, Felicia Patinkin, Graelyn Brashear, Haley Thomas. Lauren Kim, Grace Walker, and Jesse Remedios. Jamus Andresy created the artwork for this show. We had support from Alex Manasseri, Mark Duffy, Robert Mathers, Joey Salvia, Job Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Lisa Namerow, David Allan, and the team at CNN Travel. Wendy Brundige is CNN Digital's SVP of content strategy. Chance Encounters is a production of CNN Podcasts. Thank you for listening.