It was a warm July day, and a breeze was blowing, as our fingers touched the glass of our phones—left, right, left, right, when de repente, our phones dinged with a new match on Hinge. A month later—after Dominique said that she was "too busy" dealing with a global health crisis, and Ben stayed at home sanitizing his produce and exploring changes to his Hinge profile (to include or not include lines from Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "The Fish" to compliment the cold salmon dangling from my fingers in photo #3?)—we met in the rose garden of Elizabeth Park. Ben had just arrived from playing an important game of zip zap zop on the internet, and Dominique had just stabilized a patient in cardiac arrest. Our hearts palpitated as we gravitated to the edge of a 6 feet radius of each other. We smiled furtively under our masks. After a few glasses of wine, we unmasked. (That's right— the wine dribbled down our masks and pooled in our laps—it was a huge mess. JK unmasking here is a metaphor for the feeling of sharing ourselves and that love is messy). Ben began to speak a Spanish that rivaled the poetry of Pablo Neruda y se acerco y le pregunto, what is your favorite resource card in Catan? After the date, Dominique called her mom to tell her about the profound things they talked about. Lena worried that Dominique was too excited too early about a gringo who sent long messages and tried too hard to be funny (though she agreed he was a "gringazo"—handsome gringo—in photos). But it was too late, Ben had already asked her out on another date, and Dominique had agreed. During a time of uncertainty, Dominique cared about the details and the people in Ben's life. She knew them by their names and their stories for so long before she could meet them in person. She remembered everything, as if she knew them, and like a good coach, she asked questions that indicated listening and made Ben feel seen. Ben told bad jokes and made up names of diseases, and she liked it y ahora nos casamos!!

Ben had arranged flowers, champagne, doves, and streamers ready to propose on Thursday, June 3rd in Cancun, Mexico. Muriel (Dominique's sister) had communicated clandestinely with Ben and arranged for all of Dominique's family to be together on June 3rd in the evening and for all of Ben's family to be together as well to celebrate through zoom after Ben proposed on the beach. As Ben and Dominique danced at Charles and Jazmyn's wedding (congrats!!!) on the eve of their trip to Cancun, Ben told Dominique, "you know I'm not going to propose in Cancun, that would be way too obvious." Dominique smiled and said, "whew, thank God! BLANK (name removed for privacy purposes) just got engaged there, so we should have something different." GULP. GULP. Ben decided that the show must go on. On the day of the proposal (also their 10 month celebration), Ben started acting weird. While having dinner, he said he needed to go to the bathroom and took FOREVER🤔. Then, as they were walking on the beach, Ben asked THE question and Dominique was so surprised and said "HELLZ YEA!" An American who happened to be strolling nearby noted Ben on one knee and began to document the whole scene. Afterward, she came up and shared the photos with us across our devices. We invited her to the wedding and hope she will join us!