Like all the great stories (or at least the most exciting ones) - our story starts with two strangers meeting on a cold, rainy night. It was the first week of January 2020; and after matching on a popular dating app and spending a few days messaging back and forth (and realizing we had the same favorite bar, Tattooed Mom's) we decided to meet up to grab some after-work drinks. Several beers (and one very cool ceramic Lucky Cat cup that the bartender gave us) later, we realized that we'd accidentally closed down the bar - talking and laughing and debating the finer points of graphic design until well past midnight. This was something special, and we both knew it... But no great story is that simple - and unbeknownst to either of us (or to the rest of the world), things were about to change more than anyone could have guessed. Fast-forward to March - we'd been casually dating for a few months, both of us still trying to play it cool and "not get too tied down" (even though we saw each other multiple times a week). But like the beginning of a horror movie, small things were starting to happen in the background; news stories on TV about some unknown virus, about cruise ships turned into isolation wards, about masks and gloves and toilet paper shortages. Almost overnight, we were in a full-fledged pandemic. A few days later, and lockdown was in full effect - stores and restaurants shuttered, curfew orders were issued, and National Guard trucks rolled through the empty streets of Philadelphia. But this is a love story, remember - and every good love story needs a little excitement. It wasn't long after lockdown started that we realized - if we were both staying isolated anyway, why not bend the rules a little bit? So we made a pact - if everyone was going to be locked in their apartments for "a couple of weeks" (if only we knew), we may as well make the best of it. Besides, if one of us had caught whatever this superbug was by now, we probably both had it anyway... Unsurprisingly, you learn a lot about someone when they account for roughly 50% of all human interaction that you have for months on end - and the more we learned, the more we realized that this was something more, something bigger than just a sneaky pandemic fling. Weeks passed, and then months - and by the time late summer rolled through and lockdowns began to ease up, we were smitten. From then on we grew to be inseparable - and over the next year we introduced our families, took road trips to old stomping grounds, and stole away to remote beaches on island paradises. . . . Not every story needs to close with a clever phrase or a subversive twist - sometimes, when you're telling a tale as old as time, an old classic will do just fine: "... and the rest is history." . . .