Our love story began over coffee. I was 16 years old when Billy and I first met. I was working at the local Dunkin’ Donuts shop, and Billy had come in with a group of his friends from the fire department to order coffees. I memorized his order quickly, mainly because it was simple (and if I’m being honest, kind of boring). I must have been a pretty good barista, because he started coming in more frequently, and eventually by himself. I remember saying to him one afternoon that he should switch up his order. He said, “Make me whatever you want.” Over the next year, he became a regular part of my afternoon shifts. I would make him a coffee with different flavor combinations while writing messages on his cups; he would take over some of my work duties while I did so (are we thinking husband material yet?). Despite the connection that we knew we had with one another, our paths went separate ways when I left town to go to college in Florida. We would talk here and there, but communication became less frequent, until eventually there was no communication at all. As fate would have it (and yes, we truly do believe in fate now), I returned home after my freshman year and made the difficult decision not to go back. Not even weeks later, our paths crossed again in the same place they crossed 3 years prior. At a time when we both felt confused and uncertain about the direction our lives were heading, we each became the one thing the other felt certain about. Despite it feeling as if we’d had many coffee dates already, we had our first official date at the Cheesecake Factory where we picked out each other’s meals. The symbolism of our first date remains a profound testimony to the values our relationship has embodied over the past 9 years- trusting one another, relying on one another, and believing that the other person has our best interest in mind through every decision.