Until The Wheels Fall Off

In the Fall of 2020, knee-deep during the pandemic, boys and girls began to emerge from their quarantines and seek love again. And so, Rob and Dylan began. We didn't lock eyes for the first time by chance in a cozy coffee shop (or, let's face it: a bar), but instead we took our chances on the deep, dark...dating apps. I (Dylan) did indeed cancel our first date, as one has the luxury of confidently doing from behind a screen. But Rob's tenacity (and irresistible good looks/Hinge profile pictures) had me asking for a second chance. And my (Rob) determination to find a girlfriend after my roommate-buddy had (and Dylan's irresistible good looks/Hinge profile pictures) warranted a second chance granted. We met in Warwick for the first-time at a dog-themed restaurant called Fetch. We dined in the street, safely 6-feet apart from other patrons, as one did in the old days. Afterward, Rob drove me home in his blue Ford pickup truck. I could have walked back, but I wanted just a few more minutes with him because I was sure that this beautiful, funny, charming, and incredibly intelligent man would never see me again. He walked me to my front door like a true gentleman and left. No kiss, no hug. I thought, "That was nice. See you never." I was so wrong! We met later that week for sushi - it was the night of the Presidential debates - and after more stimulating and effortless conversation, we shared our first kiss in the pouring rain - literally. I hate to be a cliche, but that was it: we were both hooked. One night after carving pumpkins with my girlfriends, Rob asked me a question I hadn't been asked since I was 15. "Do you want to be my girlfriend"? We bonded quickly and deeply over the next months because of the restrictions that still existed due to the pandemic. It was months before we ever were able to sit at a bar together. I bought a book of scratch-off dates and we did many of them between the 4 walls of my small studio apartment. I fell in love first. Rob was a harder shell to crack, but one night after finishing WandaVision as we both drifted off to sleep in the ocean (AKA, Rob's water bed that I endured out of love!), I whispered that I loved him and he said he loved me too. And then I grabbed my phone and texted my friends. Things moved pretty quickly after that. We spent any free time we had together, and we just melted into each other's lives. It was like it had always been that way, so when we had a dog by that first spring and moved in together by summer, it felt fast but it also felt normal. The next two years we traveled, snowboarded, learned new things together, unlearned wrong things, binged Lost & the Sopranos decades after the rest of the world, fell deeper in love, acquired Betty from a dumpster, built a garden (literally and figuratively), got matching tattoos, cooked exclusively Half Baked Harvest, then loathed HBH, ran together, left jobs, started new jobs, and built a real, sturdy life. So many of our beginnings started because of our love and belief in one another. And on November 9th, 2024 we celebrate the next beginning, amongst family, friends, and loved ones that have celebrated this journey and this story - who made it what it was by loving us. Thank you for joining us. We love you right back.