Simplicity and connections in reality

I have long been a skeptic about invisible elements of reality that could not be measured or quantified. However, I have also long believed in love at first contact. I have just come to the realization that these two positions are mutually exclusive and that since I have experienced one, it invalidates the other. How can you love someone when you first meet them and know nothing about them except that they exist? This seems to lead to the concept of soul mates or other invisible connections. Deep in my heart I believe that I have fallen in love with people before I knew their name, before I knew what they looked like, before knowing anything more than they exist. I believe I have experienced this three times, yet none of these have yet worked out to a romantic relationship. That by itself doesn't contraindicate the love, instead it indicates there are multiple kinds of love, or at least that what we normally consider romantic love is a combination of both romance and love, and that it does not require that both always exist. You can love someone without being romantically involved, as you can be romantically involved with someone without loving them. I'm not sure what the point to the second is, however the former is the basis for amazing friendships, and painful frustration.