We're getting married!

It started, as so many beautiful and potentially impeachment-inducing relationships do, with an internship. She an intern, he a lowly media reporter. Few sparks that first summer, at least on her end -- he talked too much, especially about the rise of the Islamic State and other uncomfortable things. After she went back to school, he could never get her out of his head and when she showed up next summer at a happy hour, he knew he had just one chance. Never self-assured around women, he was strangely unafraid asking her out -- she put him at ease. Fresh out of college, she was caught off-guard by his straightforward invitation and said yes without thinking it through. Summer turned to fall, and what both had expected would be a fling turned into something quite different. She was heading off to Israel, he still stuck in Washington. It was a difficult 11 months, both emotionally and, with frequent trips to the Middle East, financially. But with her homecoming, the late-night/early-morning phone calls were forgotten, and their life together truly began.

She had a nasty cold, and after a day of traveling was ready to bow out of the drive to Cabo do Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. "I promise it'll be worth your while," he said, in a way he hoped was sly (it wasn't). They made it, but his vision of a warm seaside proposal soon clashed with the reality of an ultra-windy coastline. Ignoring signs presumably urging caution (neither read Portuguese), they scrambled down the mountainside to the coastline. Scrambling gave way to falling hundreds of feet, and she barely escaped with her life -- or, to hear him tell it, she slid about three feet before he grabbed her. They stopped on some rocks overlooking the ocean. He fiddled with the ring, hidden for days in his backpack. No room to get down on one knee -- how to ask? After a few false starts, he looked her in the eye and went for it. He'd forgotten to remove his sunglasses, she later reminded him. But, mindful of the fact that a wedding meant her dog could wear a tuxedo, she said yes anyway.