In the summer of 2014, Annika and Mike both landed in New London, Connecticut for a theater intensive at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. A few weeks in, Mike was assigned to direct Annika’s brand-new play, and was advised by the professional directors on campus to treat sitting down with a new playwright like going on a first date. They found a quiet corner and began a conversation that continued through the rest of the intensive, then by text, over Skype, and through letters for the better part of three years. Annika became intimately familiar with the all-night Greyhound from New Jersey to Durham, and, later, Mike found the best weekend flights between Chicago and Seattle. In 2016, they went from long-distance to no-distance when Annika moved into Mike’s tiny studio apartment in Queen Anne. In 2019, they went for a walk around Seattle Center in between their bartending shifts at Seattle Rep, and Mike spotted something shiny on the ground, which he pocketed (and Annika promptly forgot about). In 2023, he used the diamond he’d found that day to propose in a little vegetarian restaurant in Paris. In 2024, they got married in their beloved new hometown of Portland, and you were there too, and you had the most incredible time.