The year was 2022. Sarah and her girlfriends were enjoying a classic Sunday Funday, made even better by a Monday off from school. After a full day bopping around Denver, they decided it was time to recoup and headed back to her friend Mal’s apartment. They made their way down to the hot tub to relax, where a group of friends was already chatting away. Before long, the two groups blended together. That’s when Sarah learned that a cute guy named Ryan and his friends were also in the midst of their own Sunday Funday. As conversation flowed, Sarah and Ryan were naturally drawn to each other. Ryan got Sarah’s number and headed off to dinner, planning to text her in a couple of days to ask her out. Sarah, on the other hand, thought, " why wait?" and texted him about an hour after he left. The date was set for the following day, but Sarah, having perhaps a bit too much fun, asked if it could be pushed to Tuesday instead. Tuesday came, and the plan was a 6 p.m. date, but Ryan’s work kept pushing the time later and later. Meanwhile, Sarah’s well-known dislike of the cold had her seriously reconsidering the entire idea of leaving her apartment. She called her sister, Emily, hoping for reassurance that canceling was the right move. Instead, Emily told her to throw on a sweater and suck it up. She will go on this date (thank God for older sisters). Ryan pulled up to pick Sarah up, and she couldn’t believe her luck. Thanks to Sunday Funday, she hadn’t fully known what she was getting herself into… but here he was: handsome, able to talk just as much (maybe even more) than she could, and with a calm, grounding presence that immediately put her at ease. He drove her to an ice cream shop called Frozen Matter. With snow falling and the air absolutely freezing, Sarah thought it was a strange pre-dinner choice, but oh well, the man was cute. As she stood studying the ice cream flavors, Ryan casually slipped to the back of the shop and flipped a switch next to a giant freezer door. The door opened, revealing a hidden speakeasy tucked behind it. Time ceased to exist in that little bar. What was meant to be one quick drink and a 30-minute stop turned into over an hour of effortless conversation, laughter, and back-and-forth that made them late for their dinner reservation. They rushed out into the snow and hurried to Wildflower, thankfully still able to snag their table. With the snow falling outside, and their table sitting right in front of floor-to-ceiling windows, the restaurant felt like a cozy snow globe: quiet, warm, and entirely their own. The server came by three separate times to ask for their order, and on the third visit finally said, “The kitchen is closing, we really need to put this in.” Somewhere between talking about their families, their adventures, and their lives, neither of them had even looked at the menu. Ryan quickly picked a few dishes, and the night carried on seamlessly, filled with great food and even better conversation. That night marked the beginning of their best chapter yet. After all, all good things start in a hot tub.