Samantha and Alex went on their first date in July 2019 after initially hitting it off on an online dating website. Since Alex used to live in the DC neighborhood of Brookland, he thought it would be fun to go check out the Franciscan Monastery Gardens & bring along a date at the same time. After many additional dates and lots of fun around DC, they officially became a couple in October 2019. For Samantha, meeting all of Alex's friends was a whirlwind. Likewise, Alex was excited to meet many of Samantha's friends and relatively nearby (pun intended) family members. Unfortunately, then the COVID pandemic happened, and the six miles between their apartments suddenly felt much further. Samantha and Alex did their best to overcome the isolation of the early period of the pandemic while catching up on some beloved sitcoms and scheduling video calls. In September 2020, they took their first trip together to beautiful Annapolis, Maryland, for Samantha's birthday. They later went on many more trips - weekends with friends, spending time with Alex's family in Indiana and Michigan, and attending Samantha's brother's wedding in Mexico City. In October 2022, Samantha and Alex moved in together into a new apartment in downtown Silver Spring. After their experiment of living together and frequently working from home together seemed to work well, Alex surprised Samantha by proposing on April 4, 2024 - Alex's 34th birthday. Getting engaged was the best possible birthday present.