It was a balmy July evening in San Sebastián, a gorgeous coastal town in the north of Spain. A small festival was happening at the harbour—the bright lights and thumping bass could be seen from the other end of the beach. Separately, a girl—a few drinks deep and emerging from a lackluster Bumble date—and a guy—moseying around town with two buddies—started walking towards the sound, both eager for some spontaneous entertainment. When the girl arrived, she started to scope out the scene. She was on her own after all, and people watching is one of her favorite solo travel pasttimes. She spotted a trio of guys—one blond, one brunette and the other with a curly head of brown hair. Certainly they were fellow travelers. If she was gonna stick around at this random beach party, she might as well make friends. She followed them through the crowd and saddled up next to them, dancing along to the extremely mediocre EDM DJ. The brunette was the first to talk to her, but suddenly the one with the curly hair stepped in. They started chatting, he made her laugh. He asked if she wanted to go grab a beer and then made his move. The man acts fast. They spent the evening together and when the music stopped, the girl walked back to her hostel and the boy got a taxi back to his surf camp. They exchanged numbers, but didn't expect anything to come of it—vacation flings, after all, are usually just that. But the boy kept in touch, and a few weeks later he was flying out to Madrid for a spontaneous weekend visit. A couple months later, the girl visited Belgium for the first time. After that, the rest was history. What wasn't meant to be a serious thing evolved into a long distance relationship between Madrid and Brussels. They saw each other once a month for about six months, culminating in the girl's 27th birthday trip to Bologna, Italy. It was March 2020. When Madrid was one of the first to shut down, the boy bought her a one-way ticket to Brussels. A few weeks turned into a few months. Going from long distance to living together turned out to be an intense, but happy accident—if they could get through lockdown together, they could get through anything. But the girl's time in Madrid was coming to an end. Soon she'd have to decide where she would live, and during this strange time, Brussels had started to become home. It was certainly sooner than planned, but the boy and the girl decided to make things official, and they signed papers for a domestic partnership so the girl could stay. The visa process was long and anxiety-inducing. The boy even missed his first trip to the US because the borders were still closed. Still, they pushed through and never doubted that they were making the right decision. Nearly 4 years later, the boy planned a surprise trip. He took the girl back to San Sebastián and asked her to marry him at the spot where they had that first chance encounter. Now, they're planning a wedding close to the boy's hometown. They've built a life in Brussels—a pretty damn good one at that—and they can't wait to have all the people they love in the same room to toast to their story so far, and help kick off the chapters still to come.