Brett and David. David and Brett. They had crossed paths several times before they officially became an item. Everyone knows everyone in the theatre. David had seen Brett in an Applied Mechanics production and Brett had seen David in an Azuka production. They chatted with each other after those shows, flirted a little. David was incapable of communicating that he had developed a crush on Brett and would like to get to know her more. Brett was incapable of - actually, that isn’t really a start to any sentence anywhere, so I'll just unsay those words now. In fact, Brett had asked David out for a drink at Quig’s and David declined. Was it only because this upstairs theatre bar left you smelling of cigarette smoke the next day? The world will never know. That summer they chatted again at Dancexplosion (Philadelphia's most renowned dance party for theatre nerds) and David tempted Fate again by disappearing when Brett excused herself to go the the bathroom. He was nervous, he didn’t feel like dancing, he didn’t feel like exploding, and he wandered home alone. Some months later, after a couple more short chats in theatre spaces, they were cast in a play opposite each other. When asked how she came to the decision to cast Brett and David, their friend Becky Wright (their wedding officiant) simply stated, “I thought it would work.” You wanna get to know someone - ride in a car with them. Endless thanks to Tom Carman for letting them into his carpool to and from Mt.Airy! It’s a little more than just that, though. For weeks, every day of the week, 6 out of 7 days a week, for roughly 8 hours a day, Brett got to observe and interact with David, and David her. Maybe it was the fact that David couldn’t handle that Brett went on a date with some guy with “small hands” (Brett’s words), maybe it was the fact that they continued to gravitate toward each other on breaks, or maybe it was curiosity - whatever it was - Brett asked David to come over to teach her how to make pasta. There it was! A date! To Brett. I say that, reader, because, you see, they walked to the store, got the eggs and the flour and the essentials for a quick tomato sauce, caught the bus toward the city, did a crossword together, made the transfer, got off the bus near Brett’s place, Brett said Welcome to my place, they made pasta together (yes, from scratch), laughed, conversed, David did dishes, and then he left. He said Good Night and See You Tomorrow and didn’t think of it as a Date Date. Brett consulted her best friend, and David is eternally grateful for the advice Alex Marshall-Brown offered Brett. She decided to invite him out for karaoke. David won the game of Foosball and Brett sang a song (her first choice had been done already so she went with En Vogue’s cover of Giving Him Something He Can Feel). Brett continues to impress and inspire David, making him feel happy and increasingly assured of his growing identity. David continues to delight Brett, oscillating between something resembling cluelessness and a quirky, yet adept balance of humor and support. Earning a laugh from each other is a beautiful barometer of their love. David asked Brett to marry him after a bike ride in the Fall of 2020, and Brett said yes. They joyously shared the news with the first person they saw and the Fireman taking the trash out mustered up something resembling a grunt and went back into the station. Ah, love!