Unbeknownst to us, we lived on the same floor during Bee's first semester at Ithaca. Thomas lived directly next door to Bee's best friend at the time; we were feet away from each other and had no idea until the next year. 3rd floor T8 was a blessing because it had the best kitchen, the best views, and our RA had a cat. T8 was a curse because Bee was so anxious the entire time that she almost never left her room. The only time she remembers seeing Thomas was in the lounge with friends and this lounge was where the laundry room was. Obviously, being seen doing laundry is just mortifying so she bolted out of there so quickly that she was undoubtably more noticeable than before. He--shocker--does not remember this interaction; she had another anxiety attack when she had to go pick up the laundry because she was terrified of anyone on the couches. But now we're getting married so, thanks Loki the cat, it was you that sparked the sudden memory of this moment.

Once Covid lockdowns eased, Bee was making the trip to Ithaca at least once a month to see our friends. She would stay at Thomas' apartment with our mutual friends and these trips would be the first time, but far from the last time, that Bee would be desperately trying to follow along with board game rules. In the weeks after his college graduation, Thomas spent several hours preparing a PowerPoint on the Dune board game to present to us. Little did he know that these 45 minutes would send Bee on an ADHD fueled spiral that would have her reading Frank Herbert's Dune ELEVEN TIMES because she wanted to engage with Thomas' interests. (He wants to make it very clear that only the first time was on his request. The following ten were all her) This PowerPoint is the defining moment for Bee thinking "oh, he's... really cute..." Neither of us could have guessed that a PMJ T-shirt, a science fiction novel turned board game, and one crooked smile would kick Bee into the most hardcore crush she's ever had.

This story begins and continues with Robert Caro's The Power Broker. Thomas moved to Brooklyn in August and in the first 3 days of him being there he drove Bee home at midnight in the eye of a hurricane. From then on we were making the drive every week to see each other. Of course, we were totally JUST FRIENDS; just friends who willingly drive 2 hours to and from Bed Stuy, spent $40 in tolls, and crossed state lines to see each other for less than 24 hours. Without fail, The Power Broker was playing on 80% of these back and forth drives. The other 20% of the time it was Tom Waits. She sobbed every time he left. He had spent his Thanksgiving weekend texting her and she ignored her holiday to do the same. His phone was always dying and while he didn't have a charger, he spent the last few minutes of power to talk to her because "I like talking to you, I want to talk to you." She never wanted him to put his phone down if it meant time without him. Fresh off the drive between New Orleans and Houston, on November 29th, 2021 they were once again completely locked into texting each other. She was ignoring her Geology class to spend her time with him. Bee went home praying to every power that may be that by the end of the night we'd be together. Her friends woke up the next morning to a text from 4 am that said "Wake up. We have a title."

After months of bawling every time we had to be apart for a week, which only got worse after he played her "Long Monday" by John Prine, Bee decided that maybe it was time to move back to New York. Thomas surprised her by suggesting that they find a place together. Secretly, she was hoping he would. While we were not even 6 months into the relationship, we never had a second thought about it. She did panic as he told his parents this plan after meeting her not even 6 hours prior, but we live and we learn. Apartment hunting hell began and we were getting more and more desperate by the day when by chance our broker sent us a listing for our little one bedroom in Astoria. It could not have been more perfect. And we swear to this day that Bee wishing our 90-year-old Greek landlord a happy Easter won us the apartment. We're also keeping it by writing them Christmas cards in Greek, because Bee is nothing if not an eldest daughter. We moved in May, 2 weeks before our 6th month, Bee started working at Gorjana, and we did not have a couch until like July. We sat on our floor every night, rolling around on a weighted blanket, and happy as could be. We will simply never take that couch for granted. In the nearly 4 years that we have lived in Astoria, we have only spent 4 days apart from each other at a time. And, you guessed it, Bee sobs every time.

After 2 years in Astoria, a promotion, a new job, getting trapped in Europe, and many late nights awake talking about the intricacies of our future, Thomas proposed on April 13th, 2024. He spent weeks preparing, plotting, and scheming in quite the group chat with KT and Kaitlyn. Bee was instantly suspicious when Kaitlyn of all people suggested going to brunch in the city. Kaitlyn? In the city? Alarm bells rang. But of course, it had to be Kaitlyn. Katie and Ronnie were shivering behind a statue in Madison Square Park waiting for the signal to start taking pictures. After many tears were shed and many photos were taken (thank you, Ronnie's photography professor) We were whisked uptown so Thomas could surprise Bee with our closest family and friends for dinner and so Bee could *officially* ask Katie and Kaitlyn to be her bridesmaids. The rest of the weekend was filled with overwhelming love from everyone and we both went to sleep by 8pm for the next week, we were so tired.