In 1992, Gianna was in her brother’s wedding party, and I was a server on the waitstaff. I saw her from a distance laughing and enjoying herself but was nervous. I was working, or at least supposed to be but I could not help but try and flirt with this pretty girl. Her mother saw all of this and introduced us. Gianna, nervous and pretty, agreed to meet with me and we began to talk. When the wedding was over, I was invited to their family home, or at least, where Gianna’s family was staying. They had been visiting for the wedding and were due to return to CALIFORNIA with Gianna, so we had very little time to get to know each other, but we made the most of it. Of course, with the supervision of Gianna’s entire family. Our few days together went by quick, but we made plans to stay in contact with each other. We maintained our long-distance affair until Gianna graduated high school and was sent to Italy the following summer. Mama Dovigi was kind enough to arrange a layover for Gianna on her way back home. We’d have a few hours to spend with each other and when the time came, we shared our first Heineken together at the TWA terminal at JFK. Those precious few hours went quickly, and we attempted to continue our long-distance romance, but time proved to be stronger. We parted ways over the phone and presumably forgot each other. Seven years pass and we find each other through email. We start to talk again, and it feels like we might start up again, but we both were still an entire continental land mass away from each other. She was in California and me in New York still, but like before, it didn’t matter. We spoke like we hadn’t stopped speaking. And we decided to try and see each other. This time, I’d make my way out to California. Timing is very important. You don’t know this when you’re young and naïve, but you learn as you walk through life. It was the end of the Summer in 2001, and after meeting, we had to agree that this was not our time either. We parted again and figured for sure we may never see each other again, but maybe in the back of our minds we each knew better. Years would pass again without contact, but somehow and some way, we’d find each other again… sort of. I had messaged Gianna on Facebook back in 2011 and due to account issues she was having, she didn’t see it until a few years later. She replied and we started chatting again. This time it was clear we both did not want to press anything. We were both romantically involved with someone else and were perfectly comfortable being just friends. A couple of years would pass, but this time, we’d maintain contact, never trying to be romantic, but trying to comprehend each other, and I think we recognized, respected and appreciated the effort we were both putting into our new friendship. When covid hit, our conversations became frequent and would last longer. She and I were both now single again, and yes, we both figured we could afford ourselves a better opportunity to be together. Neither she or I had gotten married or started a family, and at this point, we’d each been single for close to a year, so we decided to meet in Vegas to try once more. Vegas was a great time. We hardly knew what was going on in the world around us and we did not gamble in the casinos! We spent every moment together, getting to know each other again, and realizing that neither of us had changed very much from how we were as kids… it only took us 33 years to figure it out! Neither of us had connected with anyone like we connected with each other, so it was very easy to come together again. We committed to each other again, but this time was different. We knew we were meant for each other, and we couldn’t live without one another. In the spring of 2023, I moved to California to be with Gianna. I should‘ve married that woman years ago!