For a while, the two kept enjoying breaks together, sometimes tucked quietly behind Casa Bonita’s waterfalls or even in the caves for some peace and quiet. Valente, a 27-year-old Puebla, Mexico, native, would practice his English on Annette and she’d practice her Spanish.
“It was the funniest thing because we could hardly understand each other, but I thought he was so handsome with tanned skin and this big head of black hair,” Annette said. “And he was quite intrigued with this blue-eyed, fair, light brown-haired girl that spoke some Spanish. We just kind of pulled together like fireflies in a fire.”
Valente got up the nerve to ask her out for a drink during one of their breaks, and she quickly said yes. Annette had moved to Denver from Aberdeen, South Dakota, after college because she said she didn’t want to become a farmer’s wife. She first got a job working in a real estate office, but as the youngest one there, she wasn’t making many friends. So when she heard Casa Bonita was opening, she thought the new sparkly restaurant and entertainment venue would be the perfect opportunity to meet other people her age, and she did just that.