On an August night in 2001, two people who had never met—each of them unaware that the other existed—went online at about the same time with essentially the same thought. I’m not looking for anything serious. The website was Blackplanet.com, and neither 19-year-old Vince Wilfork (aka “heyhey75”) nor 23-year-old Bianca Farinas (“miamib”) went there thinking that he or she was clicking on destiny.
Bianca was in Homestead, about 30 minutes from Miami, on the site posting pictures and trying to keep up with friends in Gainesville. A mom, homeowner and holder of two jobs, she had been single for a year after ending a five-year relationship with the father of her 3-year-old son, D’Aundre.