BEN SKLAR/DMN

Buying a soft drink every day helped Mickey Stuckey get Holly Bolton's attention. They've been married 20 years and recently gave up life in the suburbs to move downtown.

Mickey Stuckey and Holly Bolton credit Dr Pepper for getting them together. It was just what the doctor ordered.

While working at a Tulsa, Okla., apartment complex, Holly often noticed Mickey walking through the clubhouse to get a soda.

"I said, 'You come through here every day. What's your name?' " says Holly, who was really thinking, " 'Why doesn't the guy just go buy a 12-pack?' "

"I really wanted a Dr Pepper, but I wanted to look at her more," he says. "Of course, I'm a guy, so her looks were the first thing that caught my eye ... and her personality. I never told her, I did have a 12-pack in the refrigerator."

But his plan worked. That day after work in October 1986, they spotted each other in the parking lot.

"He thought I was smart because I was driving a Honda, and he used to sell them," says Holly, who drove a CRX. Mickey was in a Prelude.

They hit it off right away, talking for two hours. Mickey had every reason to believe that asking her out was a natural next step.

"I found out it was going to take about three weeks before she could clear her social calendar for me to have a date with her," he says. "I wasn't real happy about that."

But because Holly was a single mom to 5-year-old Justin, she made dates only for weekends. And hers were booked for three weeks.

"I didn't care if she was Miss America," he says. "I wasn't going to make a date that far in advance."

But Mickey quickly realized he had no choice. He liked Holly enough to wait. On their first date, they saw "the most horrible movie," Holly says. Then, they went back to Mickey's apartment to talk. That's when Mickey said, "I've been married twice before, and I'm never getting married again."

Holly told him, "You know what? I just got a divorce myself. I am not looking for any kind of a commitment."

Despite their intentions to keep things light, Mickey and Holly were dating exclusively within three weeks.

"I just enjoy his company so much," Holly says. "He's very romantic. He brought me a rose on our first date. He didn't even try to kiss me until our fifth date, so he was a gentleman."

When Holly's weeklong business trip to Albuquerque, N.M., in April 1987 wound up taking three weeks, the absence made her realize the depth of her feelings.

"I knew I was in love with Mickey, but I didn't want to tell him because I didn't want to scare him off," she says.

But when Holly got back, she didn't have to wait. Mickey professed his love for her, which she gladly reciprocated.

"I never have felt like I need space away from her like I hear other guys talk about," says Mickey, now 55. "I don't feel like I've got to go out with the guys."

As Holly and Mickey settled into their couple status, Justin was right there with them.

"He told us he wanted us to get married, and he wanted to be 'the ring barrel,' " says Holly, now 46. Justin's wish would be set in motion when Mickey proposed with little fanfare that June at his apartment.

"He started out really romantic, but there wasn't any magic moment," she says.

Mickey told Holly that they were getting along so well she could forget what he said about never getting married again. And that was about it.

"We may have the perfect marriage, but we sure don't have the perfect marriage-proposal story," he says.

Holly picked out her ring the next month. Because he had lost his first two wedding rings, Mickey decided to forgo one this time.

With a tux-clad Justin as the ring bearer, Mickey and Holly had a small wedding on Sept. 12, 1987, at her apartment complex's clubhouse. Within months, the property management company asked if she'd transfer to Dallas.

"I grew up in West Texas before I moved to Oklahoma," Mickey says. "When her company offered to transfer her down here, I was tickled to death. I couldn't get back to Texas fast enough."

In 1990, Mickey and Holly settled into a home in Cedar Hill, which is where they raised Justin until he left for college a few years ago.

As their 20th anniversary approaches, Mickey and Holly reminisce about how easy their time together has been.

"We really enjoy each other's company, I think is the bottom line," says Holly, an account executive for Apartment Finder magazine.

"And it doesn't matter what we're doing. I mean, we could be doing nothing and enjoy being around each other."

"Nobody believes us when we say we never argue, but we don't," says Mickey, a recruiting manager for Gulf Coast Transport, a trucking company in Sunnyvale.

They spend a lot of time traveling, including a trip to Hawaii in 1994 when Holly surprised Mickey at a luau. She got up on stage, told a huge group of strangers she'd marry him all over again, then gave him a wedding ring.

Last year, they traded life in the suburbs for a loft apartment in downtown Dallas, which has easy access to their favorite things: Dallas Mavericks games, concerts and restaurants.

"We love it," Mickey says. "We're really glad we did it. I used to be a slave to my yard. Everybody told me I would miss it, and I haven't missed it one minute."

"Mickey's kind of the calm in the middle of our storm," says Holly of their two decades together. "We've been blessed the whole time." Do you have a story of True Romance? We'd like to hear from you. E-mail Kathleen Green at DMNGreen@sbcglobal.net.