Back in 2022, our story began in the most unexpected way — on Hinge. At the time, I was living in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, while Vova was living in Elmwood Park. The funny thing is, neither of us should have ever even seen each other on the app. My distance range was set to only five miles, and his was too. Somehow, against all odds, our paths still crossed. One day while I was at work, casually scrolling through Hinge, Vova suddenly appeared on my screen. I looked through his profile and instantly thought he was so handsome, so I decided to send him a heart. Not long after, we matched. Soon after, we went on our first date at a cozy Italian restaurant in downtown Naperville. Over dinner, we laughed about how crazy it was that we had even matched in the first place. Then we realized the reason: that day, Vova had been driving near my town while dropping off a friend. If he hadn’t been there at that exact moment, we probably never would have found each other. What felt like such a small coincidence turned out to be the beginning of everything. From that very first date, our love story began — proof that sometimes the right person finds you exactly when they’re meant to.