In July 2012 Adriana Xhakli got an earful about Perry Petra-Wong from her high school friend, Nick Boscamp. When he mentioned that Mr. Petra-Wong, his college friend, would be flying to New York from Los Angeles for a visit, she took for granted he would pick him up at the airport and offered the use of her SUV for what she thought would be later that week.

Mr. Boscamp said his friend was about to land at Newark airport, as they spoke. She persuaded him to take her keys and drive them there pronto in her S.U.V. “I had two glasses of wine and was up for the adventure,” she said.

Mr. Boscamp texted Mr. Petra-Wong as they left the restaurant, and soon they pulled up to a curb at the airport where he was waiting with a suitcase.

“That guy’s cute,’’ Ms. Xhakli, recalled thinking, and Mr. Petra-Wong, who was in the back seat said he was “definitely curious about her, too.”