We're Married.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Let's Party!!

Hank met Blake while they were both living in Washington, DC, in June 2017. Hank accepted a last minute invitation from a mutual friend to attend a party hosted by Aubrey, Blake's childhood BFF, in DC's Petworth neighborhood. The two met and it was an instant connection. After some playful party banter (and a few cocktails) Hank asked Blake to get coffee later that week. After a successful coffee date in which they both embarrassingly wore the same outfit (a blue and white striped t-shirt and navy shorts) and a stroll through Malcolm X Park, the two were smitten with summer loving. While the two enjoyed a summer full of concerts, date nights, a weekend getaway to Baltimore, and what felt like many hours of deep conversation, it wasn't quite the right time for Blake and Hank to become #Blank. Blake took a job and moved to Chicago and Hank moved to New York City several months later. It was a heartbreaking case of "right person, wrong time." After a few years of missed connections and loosely keeping in touch via mutual friends the time for Blank's official launch came about a week after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Hank - a week and a half into lockdown in NYC - had a dream about Blake, and sent him a text the next day. Blake responded, which kicked off a conversation that has yet to grow stale. The two were pandemic pen pals for the next few weeks, and texts turned in to weekly and eventually daily Facetime and Zoom calls. When the world began to reopen as cases began to initially drop, Blake asked Hank to visit him in Chicago in June 2020, nearly three years after originally meeting. In the middle of what felt like the world collapsing in on itself, their love reignited and has been burning ever since. Their love is a story of timing, patience, and perseverance. Anything but a traditional trajectory, Blake and Hank have not only navigated combining their lives during the pandemic, but even before that, practiced years of patience for "the right time." They both needed to grow, mature, and nurture their individual spirits before reunifying. Finally, 6 years later, the time is finally right.