Erica and Bug met at the gym for the first time in August 2017. It was not a story of love at first sight. 
Erica had started training jiu-jitsu in March 2017 in the wake of a bad breakup. She was neither looking for nor expecting the eventual love of her life to be lurking amid the sweat-soaked surfaces of a combat sports gym. Bug returned home from his freshman year at Michigan State in Summer 2017 and decided not to go back to college that fall. Instead, he chose to take some time to figure his life out back home in Massachusetts while working the front desk of Broadway Jiu-Jitsu. Like most people who meet Bug, Erica did not know what to make of Bug and his desert-dry sense of humor. Highly competitive and not knowing at the time that Bug had trained on and off since he was fourteen years old, Erica mostly felt angry at Bug as he beat her up mercilessly in jiu-jitsu. Some things haven't changed.

For Erica's birthday in July 2022, Bug planned a romantic weekend on the Georgia-Carolina coast. They started the trip with a five-hour drive to Savannah, reminiscent of their travels across the country filled with many long car rides together. After a day of bird- and dolphin-watching in Palmetto Bay and dinner in downtown Savannah, Bug insisted on taking a drive to a beach on Tybee Island, telling Erica that she could "see more dolphins at sunset" there. Erica, knowing Bug hates the beach and finding it out of character the way he had insisted on champagne at dinner, suspected Bug might be up to something. She then considered that Bug was being nice and suggesting things she liked to do because it was her birthday weekend. They made it to the beach at dusk, quiet with small clusters of people huddled over bonfires and watching the ocean. "Look over there," Bug said, pointing to the ocean, dark indigo at dusk. Erica did not see any dolphins, and squinted at the the ripples of water in the distance, trying to discern movement of a marine mammal in the waves. "Now look down here [expletive]," Bug said, engaging in the epitome of romantic gestures with his signature ribald touch. Erica turned around to see Bug on one knee. She was confused at first, convinced he might be joking given Bug's dry sense of humor. Even so, she said yes. She still is convinced he might be waiting to say "psych!" and rescind the proposal or troll her at the altar, but he has not done so at the time of updating the wedding website.