For the first year they were in school together, Ephram didn't really know Maggie existed because if she wasn't in class or working, she was hiding in the cubby hole under her bed, reading and writing. But in the fall of her junior year, Maggie realized that books do in fact fall short of human interaction. She began to try and hang out with people, including people in Ephram's friend group. Already, Maggie and Ephram were taking overlapping classes and in the same academic cohort. They didn't really talk one-on-one, but as they went to their favorite class together, Biblical Theology, Maggie began noticing that Ephram was really cute. And funny. And loved theology. But the real kicker came after class one evening at the end of the spring semester. Maggie joined the rest of Ephram's group up at the Student Center. They joked about committing arson and pretended to work on homework. At some point, Ephram mentioned one of their mutual friends not liking fiction. Maggie's horror sparked a grand defense of the necessarily role of fiction, and she cited C. S. Lewis as her primary example. Ephram agreed and added his own commentary. Soon, their conversation turned to Tolkien, and Maggie fought hard to hide her giddiness. It was after that night that Maggie began to say to her sisters, "There's this guy at school. I am not interested in him, but I COULD be. You know?"

The summer passed and another semester without much change. Maggie admitted her crush on Ephram to herself but tried not to think about it. Then Maggie was drinking coffee with her best friend at her apartment while Elise attempted to set Maggie up with every single man on campus. Since Elise and Ephram were friends (and Ephram's roommate was Elise's boyfriend), Maggie was disappointed that Ephram wasn't one of the men mentioned. Eventually, she couldn't take it any longer and told Elise that she wanted to date someone with the same ministry aspirations. Elise paused, then said the fateful words... "You know, Ephram has always wanted to go overseas." (Indeed, Maggie did not know.) Stunned and barely hopeful, Maggie confided that she was interested in Ephram. However, she had assumed all this time that he had different ministry aspirations. Elise was understandably appalled at Maggie's silence on this critical piece of information and immediately began plotting (and listing all her personal annoyances with Ephram). Maggie agreed she would try to talk to him more and see if anything came of it. "Elise," Maggie eyed her. "Don't meddle." Elise swore she wouldn't. She was only going to tell Liam (her boyfriend and Ephram's roommate) and get his opinion. We now cut to Ephram, sitting in his apartment. Enter Liam. "Maggie likes you!"

The rest was fairly straight-forward when we look back on it. Ephy started coming to talk to me at the Writer's Studio, the cafeteria, and between classes. I was pleased but extremely skittish (especially once I knew that he knew). It took about a week for him to ask me out, and we went on our first date on February 11th at a coffee shop not too close to campus. We were stiff and awkward and anxious (Ephy says that he doesn't think I moved the entire two and a half/three hours we were there). But we talked about our families, Tolkien, theology, and ministry, and when he asked me if we could go out again, I said yes. Between dates, we talked and studied together. We got Indian food on our second date, and it was nearly as nerve-wracking as the first date. Yet after each date, our interactions felt easier and more natural. It was gradual, the way we simultaneously became friends and more than friends. My dad often tells the story of when I called him, still early into the "going out" days, and I confided that the most attractive and beautiful thing about Ephram was how he talked about Jesus. And I will hold to that now. It is hard to explain what was so different about our third date. It was rather like my heart finally woke up and said, "Oh. You." We went ice skating the first week of March. It was raining, the ice was melting, and there was no one else there. And between laughter (because Ephy could NOT stop falling), our stories spilled out. On March 4th, on the ice and in the rain, the nervousness and awkwardness and uncertainty seemed to vanish.

Then came the sunsets on the hill, long walks, meeting families, long distance, three hour phone calls every summer evening, singing school, a Disney vacation, a DnD birthday party, joyous reunions, tearful goodbyes, talk of marriage, board games with siblings, Christmas lights, making plans, and the best trip to England (if you want to read about the proposal in C.S. Lewis's church, you should check out our gallery). It's tough to end this story because, you know, it has really only begun!