Here's one way to tell the story: José, the poet, met Erika, the book lover, at a poetry reading. Erika was there to support her friend Eve. José was there as a guest reader. The way Erika tells the story José read a poem about cheese fries that made her curious. Who was this charming man? The way José tells the story, Erika asked a question during the q & a. Something about literature, probably, but José was like yo! Who is this? You might think something happened right then, but nah. It was 2016. Erika was on a date with someone else. José lost track of her. But it was 2016! They found each other on Twitter and IG. Nothing happened until everything happened. One day, José is at work. He checks his phone and he's got about a dozen texts from an unknown number and his friend Eve. Yes, Eve from the first paragraph. Eve from Chicago and Seven Scribes fame. José is lost. Forgive him. He was still in his twenties and a little slow to catch on sometimes. Eve was bragging about beating José in spades (never happened), and who was the other person on the text? It was Erika! About a week later they went on their first date. They met in Harlem and shared a beverage and talked about Kanye West. Erika wrongly argued that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was the best Kanye album, and José correctly explained that the answer was College Dropout. The narrator is unbiased in these affairs (José is the narrator). The two began dating. It turned out Kanye was flawed and perhaps best left to nostalgia. Erika and José bonded over their love of good food, good art (their second date was to go see Moonlight), and their love of foolishness of all types. José knew he was smitten early on when during a weekend of grief, Erika reached out and offered to talk on the phone. They barely knew each other. What's the quote people love sharing? When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Here was Erika. Already showing up. Beautiful and funny and caring and did we mention FINE? Fine. Already showing José who she was and José was already believing her. Already learning to love her. Erika was smitten when she saw José read those poems. I mean, come on. Y'all see the beard. Back then, José wore a snapback all the time, but he kept it clean. The hairline was receding, but the voice was deep and the laugh was inviting. Shoot, I'm smitten just writing this. That was the beginning of the beginning.

José and Erika got engaged in November of 2020. Ideally, José would have invited Erika's closest friends and family to witness and surprise her during the moment. Since that was not possible, José improvised. The happy couple was planning on a vacation up in the Adirondacks to get out of the city for a bit. For those of you that have never been, The Adirondacks are beautiful mountains. Lake Placid, in the Adirondacks, has hosted the Winter Olympics before. José's plan was simple: ride a ski lift to the top of a mountain and propose. The metaphors would show themselves. Maybe love was the ski lift that made all journeys, even the most daunting ones, possible and glorious. Maybe the view from the top of the mountain would be a metaphor for the way love reveals and clarifies. Maybe there would be no metaphor. Just Erika and José up on a mountain celebrating their love together. That would still be perfect... except it was November, so skiing season hadn't started. Not only were there no ski lifts, the mountains were all closed for hiking. Erika, who had no idea what was going on, was like "oh well, I guess we gotta go back to our AirBnB and have wine in our warm apartment." Instead, José texted a friend who live in the Adirondacks for advice. She told him there was a spot nearby where two waterfalls met. When they got there, José asked Erika to take a corny picture for Instagram where she was pointing at the waterfalls. Erika turned towards the waterfalls. When she turned back to José, he was on one knee.