This is partly what I vaguely recall discussing with Jash once upon a time and partly me updating things on the fly, but:

Canon-verse: She put out a work request because she needed things done around her house that she couldn't do (carpentry work, etc etc) and L'sta just happened to be the one to answer it.
She fell in love (or something like it)...almost at first sight, or at least once she started to talk to him a bit.

WoL-verse: Similar to the above, but hiring a bodyguard to escort her to Gridania from Ul'dah. Which, I mean, she could've just taken an airship - but she wanted to travel 'normally' because she hadn't seen much of the world between her grandmother taking her from Werlyt to Ul'dah (and that was when she was almost too young to remember it).
(copy+paste the "she fell in love" line for the above to this one, also.)

...Almond is a hopeless romantic, if you couldn't tell by now.