Caffeine high

True love... is where you find it. In this case, among the bookcases in a Northern Kentucky coffee shop

GINA DAUGHERTY | CIN WEEKLY

Carla pours coffee for customers while her husband Rodney works the register at Scribbles, which opened just two weeks ago.

Within hours of their first kiss in a tiny little bar, Carla Evans and Rodney Wilson were on their way to get married.

It must have been some kiss. Most people kiss at least a few more times before they decide to say "I do." But not them. The Northern Kentucky natives immediately decided to head to Las Vegas.

Before they packed the blue '93 Chevy Corsica and headed for the strip, they gave each other an out: If it doesn't feel right, we won't do it, they said.

Thirty-six hours in a car is a long time. Surely by the end they "would know."

IN IT TOGETHER

Carla's pixie cut bangs are pulled back in a baby barrette. At 24, her face is smooth and clear without even a laugh line. Rodney is slight and soft-spoken. He always looks at Carla when he talks.

The two opened Scribbles Café and Bookstore in MainStrasse just two weeks ago. They've been working 12-hour days as the only employees, and though they've done no advertising, Scribbles is doing pretty well.

Its four rooms are decorated like your living room: cozy and warm with comfortably worn furniture and shelves and shelves of books.

Occasionally, they nap on the sofa during lulls, but mostly they read. With a degree in English literature, Rodney has a discerning eye for books that is reflected on the shelves at Scribbles.

He is also Carla's biggest fan and her staunchest defender. When she confesses she doesn't know as much about literature as Rodney does, and therefore tends to judge books by their covers, he is the first to dispel the old adage in her favor.

"There is something to be said for that," he tells her. "When I was working in publishing, the good books got more time to get a good cover. So that makes sense."

Carla is adorned with elaborate tattoos, all of which she got when she was 18. Six years later, she doesn't love them the way she did and hides them whenever she can. But Rodney thinks they are beautiful.

YOU'RE DOING WHAT?

As Carla and Rodney drove across the country, they both silently wondered if the other would back out.

Carla and Rodney Wilson on their wedding day in Las Vegas on January 1, 2001.

"We were still kind of eyeing each other for confirmation," Carla says. "We're still doing this, right? You're not going to hurt me really bad now, are you? We had given each other permission to do that. If it seemed too fast, say something."

It may have been a sudden decision to get married, but they had been friends for months. They ate together, spending hours talking at the Anchor Grill in Covington. Many of their friends thought they were dating already. But neither ever breathed a word to anyone about their feelings toward each other. It was too good to talk about. "It was such a great friendship - if this gets killed, it's really going to hurt," Carla thought.

Not even their friend Ben Gulley, who introduced them, knew their feelings. But when they called him on their way to Vegas and announced their intentions, he wasn't surprised, he says.

There are two ways to leave a road trip: Loathing or loving your company. The road to Vegas is 2,000 miles long. They'd have plenty of time to decide on one or the other.

Just in case they did end up getting married, they called their parents from the road. Carla's mom asked, "Who?" Rodney's mom hoped he was sure.

"They were always together and were practically soulmates from what I knew, but I was surprised they were leaving the next morning," says Sandy Wilson, Rodney's mom. "They were driving to Las Vegas. It was the end of December and it's such a great distance. I asked him, 'Are you sure? Is this the one?' I was sad I wouldn't be there. It was very much a surprise. The bottom line was I trusted him to know his heart."

BUY THE BOOK

Rodney's mom owns Scribbles Cafe and Bookstore in Alexandria, and she is part owner of the new one in Covington.

The idea for Scribbles Cafe and Bookstore started as the bookcases in Rodney and Carla's one-bedroom apartment overflowed to the floor. They couldn't just give them away - the books meant too much to them. So they decided to sell them - at half the cover price - to people like themselves: People who lose large chunks of their lives in back rooms of used bookstores.

Rodney, 26, and Carla, 24, figure they have more energy now than they would at 64 and 66 to do this kind of thing. And their hearts can handle the four shots of espresso it takes to keep them going on long days.

"We go to coffee houses and used bookstores all the time," Carla says. "We're not trying to get rich, we just wanted a job we wouldn't hate. And we wanted it to be something that we already do."

GOING TO THE CHAPEL

Carla had a friend in Las Vegas who was engaged, and who was nice enough to loan Carla her wedding gown. Rodney borrowed a suit that was two sizes too big.

Mason Paul and Connie Schmitt, both of Norwood, read and browse through the newspaper at Scribbles.

Then, just before they were to go to the chapel, Rodney went back up to their room at the MGM Grand. In her borrowed gown and a leather jacket, Carla waited for him to come back. She smoked a cigarette to pass the time. Then another. And another.

"After like the third cigarette in a row I was like, I'm going to throw up," she says. "I'm not sure if was from the nicotine or because I was worried sick that he's just left me in the hallway of the MGM Grand. I was like, 'Oh my gosh - he's not coming. He's not coming. How in the world am I ever going to get back to Kentucky because I am sure he left me and I am sure he took the car.' I was honestly scared out of my mind."

Rodney looks at her, as he always does no matter who he is talking to, and says, "If you knew how desperately I was trying to get back to you."

Rodney had gotten lost. He spent the time it takes to think you are being left at the altar and subsequently smoke four cigarettes getting on and off the elevator at different floors looking for Carla.

They got married New Year's Day of 2001. Their anniversary - 01/01/01 - is easy to remember. And they got married in the only church on the Vegas strip.

OLD FASHIONED COURTING

Rodney likens their friendship and subsequent marriage to an old-fashioned courtship. They didn't touch one another for nine months. And five days after their first kiss, they were married.

"This is unconventional, but look at the people doing it the conventional way with a 50 percent divorce rate," he says. "How can you say it's the right way? This is a different way, but maybe everybody should be doing it this way."

Now they are putting in full days at Scribbles and then going home together. They are used to spending large amounts of time together in close quarters. (The blue Corsica sits out front as a reminder.)

They hope that eventually they will get paid for all of the hours they've worked. But so far, they are just happy to be doing something that they enjoy - together and in love.

"There are so many logistics to the story that the fact that we are madly in love tends to get lost in the equation," Rodney says. "But there'd be no story without the love."