Summer 2021: Zach walked into Oklawaha Brewery, the craft brewery where Abbey was bartending. He immediately scratched his original plan of reading with a glass of water, opting instead to order a beer and chat up the cute bartender. Three of Zach's beers later, Abbey finished her shift and sat down next to him. They ended up having a three-hour conversation about everything under the sun, including each of their many past lives and future dreams. He scored her digits under the guise of sending her a book recommendation. The next day, he was standing outside of the brewery with the book and a handwritten note when he noticed his texts to Abbey go from blue to green. Realizing she had blocked him because she had a boyfriend, he decided not to leave the book and their communication fell off. Summer 2022: Abbey, now single, but having been on several lackluster dates, opened the Bumble dating app intending to delete it when, low and behold, Zach popped up with a profile promising good food and fun adventures. Knowing this was the near-perfect guy she had met at the brewery the summer before, Abbey quickly swiped right. To her surprise, it was a match! They laughed about the previous summer, she unblocked his phone number, and they went on a marathon first date to Sierra Nevada Brewery, Black Rose, and finally back to the Oklawaha Brewery where they had first met. What followed was a whirlwind storybook romance far too perfect and cheesy to document here.

In December 2023, Abbey and Zach went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for a romantic weeklong getaway. On the first night of their vacation, they enjoyed dinner at a fancy French restaurant, after which Zach suggested a walk on the beach. He paraphrased a French poem about love and trees (below) and talked about growing the most beautiful and sustainable tree together as a couple. Then, he said he couldn't wait a second longer, got down on a sandy knee, and popped the question. "Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being 'in love,' which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two."