Spring was upon us, and one man eagerly sat by waiting for a message from a cute, young blonde he had grown fond of. "Rizzuto's Friday at 7pm?" Eagerness quickly turned to excitement. It was set, they would meet for the first time for a drink and to make sure he wasn’t a creep. At 7pm, the guy drives by to hopefully sneak a peek at her, with no luck, he entered through the revolving doors fashionably late at 7:04 (okay maybe it was 7:14, we'll have to check the security tapes to confirm). The young woman sat anxiously on the bench tapping her foot waiting to see if it was going to Mr. Right walking through the doors. And at first sight it was love. What was supposed to be a quick drink turned into a full meal, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc wine, some corny jokes, and what would be the start of forever.

It was a Friday afternoon and the plans for the second date had been so thoughtfully put together. A night on the town, dinner, drinks, and laughs. Long before the fun was to begin, the guy left his office early to volunteer with the youth of Hartford; something he did often. It was an exciting day building helicopters and flying them throughout the school. After the helicopters were done flying, he gathered up his belongings and headed over to his car in what would be an unforgettable evening. Of course, pre-pandemic Friday city traffic was making him late. Though the clock kept moving, the cars not so much. He tried to weave through the maze of cars to her apartment. Maybe his phone died, or maybe he did not want to drive distracted. Either way, he didn’t want to risk it all thinking he was only 10 minutes late. Fortunately, he made it JUST in time, and she gave him another shot to see if this was real. Off to his favorite restaurant, Trumbull Kitchen, they sat down for dinner. He tried to apologize for being late, but he knew that they would have a blast at their next stop, Sea Tea Improv, the local comedy club. It was here that they both belly laughed, snorted, and smiled their way into the streets of Hartford. It was becoming clear there was something special here.

Three weeks after meeting in person for the first time, the guy asked if she would like to go away to Nantucket with his friends, for what would be a fun-filled Memorial Day weekend. As crazy as that sounded, she agreed. "How bad could it be; eight friends at the beach for the weekend. Sounds great!" Little did she know that would change. Only a few days before the weekend two friends dropped out, not a big deal, but then four more dropped out. Uh oh, now this is starting to sound like a Netflix Con Artist Documentary. With a little bit of nerves turning into a lot, she went along anyway. The weekend of shenanigans with friends turned into a long weekend away with each other. The weather was perfect, they dressed up as the prototypical Chad and Becky and headed off to the local watering holes and had the time of their lives people watching, shopping, eating and of course dancing. In what could have been a major disappointment and a lonely long weekend was in fact further proof that this was something special.

She surprisingly had two days off in a row, so he convinced her it would be a great idea to go to Vermont to looks at real estate for The Calnen Family Compound. Little did she know this was a big white lie. As they drove up, or rather she slept, he pondered, would everything work out as planned? They made it to Quechee, Vermont and went over the covered bridge to head to the country club where they would have lunch with his friends, or so she thought. As they passed the planned spot where he would ask her, he noticed it was frozen and blocked off, so he started to panic. They then traveled on to The Quechee Club. With his quick thinking, he came up with another white lie explaining that his friend got called into surgery. Back the the covered bridge near Simon Pearce, they went. As he paused at the spot where he decided to ask, he looked around and notice she was gone! She had bolted and took off for the heat inside the Simon Pearce store due to the chilly temperature. Swing and a miss; now he was really panicking. Walking around the store trying to keep a straight face, he paced around with his hand on the ring, brainstorming how to make it happen. “Eureka! I’ve got it”, he said to himself. They walked back outside, so he could reenact a picture that was taken during his childhood years. At that moment, he got down on the icy concrete, looked up and in shock asked "Are you ready?” The deafening silence grew, "No, are you really ready?" To which she responded with "Thank you". Surely, other things were said, but we will leave those details to the happy couple, Mary and Greg.