By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The e-mails started arriving minutes after Amy Hobbs posted her photograph on the Web site.

“You’re hot.”

“You’re so fine. Let’s get to know each other.”

“Hey sexy, hit me back. I’d like to know you.”

Delete. Delete. Delete.

Amy knew what the men wanted, and it wasn’t more information about her job as a cashier at Wal-Mart, her struggles in high school or her dream to become a professional photographer.

“Those are pickup lines,” she said, shaking her finger in the air, “and they don’t go good with me.”

Amy just broke up with her boyfriend. She wasn’t looking for a new one.

She signed up with www.blackplanet.com last September, because she thought it would be fun to meet others – whites and blacks, men and women – who prefer dating people of the other race.

Then came the e-mail from Kenneth Cooper of Houston.

He called her attractive and wondered if she would be interested in telling him more about herself.

“There was just something about his e-mail,” Amy said. “I knew right away he was different.”

By the end of the week, they were talking on the phone four hours a night.

Kenneth told Amy he was 27, originally from Trinidad and he wanted to be a music producer. She told him she dropped out of high school but was currently taking courses to get her GED.

They discovered their mutual love of rap music and wrestling.

Eventually, they made plans to meet.

“Everyone thought I was crazy,” Amy said. “My mom was like, What if he’s a mass murderer?’ And my friends were like, What if he has a wife at home?'”

Amy understood their concerns. She used to make fun of friends who fell in love online. Now she was the one asking people to trust her.

“I was like, Please, he’s on the phone with me for six hours a night. If he’s got a wife, where the hell is she?'”

Amy wore jeans and a black tank-top – “Not too fancy, but I didn’t look like a bum” – to meet Kenneth at the Lewiston bus station in May. Her heart was racing as the passengers got off.

She spotted him right away – dark skin, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, sunglasses. She sneaked up behind him as he collected his suitcase.

“Aren’t you gonna give me a hug?” she said.

Kenneth whipped around, took off his glasses and wrapped his arms around her. She kissed his cheek.

“We just acted like we knew each other our whole lives,” she said.

On his last day in Maine, Kenneth squirted Versace cologne on his favorite Houston football jersey and gave it to Amy. She slept with it for a week.

The couple has talked about moving to Tennessee to go to college. Amy doesn’t know exactly when it’ll happen. But she’s sure of one thing.

“Oh, lord, I’m marrying him. I don’t care what anyone says.”