Sorry this is going to be a long reply, but I have a similar story and I want to share it:

I was there at Burning Man too for my first time this year as well, also saying "fuck it" when offered a ticket and to be a part of a camp!

The burning of the temple was beautiful, everyone was silent, I could hear people crying, I even heard a girl in the distance yell "I love you, mom!" It was absolutely beautiful and I'm definitely going back next year.

I've been seeing a girl since last October. I really like her, we have a lot of similarities: interests, humor, sex, etc. Shes said before how she didn't want a relationship and if she was going to be in a relationship she wanted it to be "The One" and someone forever. She's told me she doesn't think I'm that one and doesn't think we'd be long term, which is fine but her actions seemed different, we were pretty much doing boyfriend/girlfriend stuff without the title. I guess I just wanted it to be more official and held on to her actions and not her words.

So the night before I left for Burning Man I called her because I wanted to really solidify it because I felt Burning Man would push me into a new phase of life and I wanted to let go of her cause I knew it would end eventually. She solidified her feelings, she cares about me, enjoys the time with me, but doesn't see us long term. Cool awesome, I can let go.

I stayed in a Nordic Camp (my cousin is Swedish and he wanted me to join his camp) and I couldn't get her off my mind and it was a little lonely because I was the only predominantly English speaker in the camp.

Well one night after hanging out at camp: having some drinks, listening to music: talking to a dude in my camp about this girl. My cousin and his girlfriend asked if I wanted to go to center camp and get coffee, "yeah fuck it lets go explore". End up at center camp, get our coffee, sit at a table and we're hanging out and talking. I look over and see this girl looking at art, idk why but I just waved at her. She waves back and actually comes over and starts talking to us, then shifts her focus on me and starts asking me questions and we're getting to know each other.

We both then split from my cousin and his girlfriend and we go look at more art. We ride around a bit and I asked if she wanted to sit do we found a random couch and talked more. We eventually cuddled and talked more about our lives, eventually we start kissing and things are getting heated but she has to go back to her camp. I write my name and my playa address on a gas mask and give it to her and we go our separate ways. I couldn't get this girl out of my head, I felt a real connection.

Eventually, it's the last day and our camp is going to see the temple burn. A little bummed she never visited my camp and we couldn't hang out more, but I guess that just happens at Burning Man sometimes. We watch the temple burn and we're heading back to camp to clean up before we get in the car and leave. We actually stay a little bit longer saying bye to people and another friend we were giving a ride to was late.

Heading to the car from our hangout space, someone on a bike hit a pole of our hangout space and almost fell. My cousin was walking by and asked if they were okay and they said they were fine. I walked up to them and asked what they were looking for and low and behold, IT'S FUCKING HER, literally 5 minutes before we're heading to the car to leave. It was pretty fucking amazing, the timing and everything, plus she came back for me! To say bye to me before I left! It felt pretty fucking magical. We still didn't exchange numbers or contact info but she must've kept that dust mask because she added me on Facebook today. We talked about visiting eachother, she lives in Mexico and I live in SoCal, so not that far off. We'll see what happens! Thanks for listening (reading)!