We met at a group dinner after a meeting, both of us far enough along in sobriety to actually show up as ourselves. At that dinner, we ended up talking about where we’d come from — how dark things had gotten for both of us in the last stretch before getting sober. Devon said it out loud first; Bennett looked over and said, me too. It wasn’t dramatic — it was just honest. That was kind of the moment everything clicked. We didn’t feel like we had to wear a mask or hold anything back. There was nothing we needed to slowly reveal or hide — we could just be fully ourselves. Neither of us had experienced that kind of ease and honesty with someone before. We both know what it’s like to go through hard things and come out different on the other side. What’s been really special is that when we found each other, that growth didn’t slow down — it accelerated. Like we were already on the path, and finding each other just made us go faster. Home isn’t a place anymore. It’s a person. And being together is better than anything either of us ever dreamed of.