Timeline: 2006 — Alex’s first day of high school. First period concert band. Realizes she has the same backpack as a JUNIOR, and it feels like every other percussionist is going, “Ooooo you bought the same backpack as Jimmy so you could match!” Alex and Jimmy quickly become friends. Very good friends. They find that they can irritate each other in a way that makes both of them laugh harder than they ever thought possible. 2007: Alex pretends to fall asleep on Jimmy’s shoulder on the bus after Band Contest. Jimmy hardly breathes for fear of waking her up. Alex’s hypothesis that Jimmy hates being touched is thrown out the window and she is left as confused as she has ever been. 2010: Jimmy goes with Alex to a party where everyone is wasted except for the two of them. Because pretending is honestly more fun. 2012: Jimmy goes to see Paul Simon with Alex’s family. One of the best nights ever, hands down. 2013: Jimmy tells Alex that he has asked his girlfriend to marry him. Alex can’t figure out why that hurts so much. 2014: Alex is in the depths of alcoholism. Sole purpose in life is to be unconscious. Jimmy tells Alex that he needs to figure out if his life would be better without her in it. Alex does not handle that well. Calls Jimmy so often and from so many different phones that he has to get a new phone number. Alex has a huge moment of clarity. She just harassed her best friend to the point where he had to change his phone number. Alex works with her sponsor and agrees that her ‘living amends’ to Jimmy is to leave him the hell alone, let him be happy, and remember him with gratitude. 2019: Alex has been sober five years. Despite several therapy sessions and groups every week, she still struggles with self-harm, frequent suicidal ideation, and other symptoms that make life terrible. She goes to a residential treatment center in Tucson, AZ and works on complex PTSD stemming from childhood. And then she stays in Arizona because, y’know, there’s sunlight. 2022: Alex receives a Facebook friend request from Jimmy Wilder. Immediately calls her sponsor to ask how to move forward. Alex’s sponsor lovingly tells her to remember the important boundaries she has been working on, and to ensure that this doesn’t become a toxic relationship like it was last time. Within a few days they both admit that they have loved each other since that first day of Concert Band. 2023: (March) Alex and Jimmy make the drive from Bellingham to Alex’s apartment in Tucson, bringing Jimmy’s stuff down in a U-Haul. (April) Jimmy proposes. Alex replies, “Duh!” Which is apparently not what you’re supposed to say?