Can't Wait to Celebrate!

It is April 2020. Austin is finishing up her last semester of graduate school from home in North Bergen, NJ, after Covid-19 lockdowns forced everyone into quarantine. James is working from his apartment in what feels like a post-apocalyptic Manhattan. Neither of them has socialized much in about a month, and no one knows when lockdown will end. They came across each other’s profiles on the dating app, Hinge, and their first dates were Facetimes with cocktails (Austin sipping on hot toddy’s to help with the cough that she would later find out was COVID-19, and James enjoying IPAs and an occasional bourbon). After about a month, they finally braved the outside world and had their first in-person date! Austin had finished her last grad school class and James wanted to take her out to celebrate. He rented a car and picked her up from NJ to take her to Fort Tryon Park, where they did cartwheels in a light snow while overlooking the Hudson. That night, James prepared a three-course meal with all of Austin’s favorites (charcuterie, homemade pizza and chicken parmigiana). A few weeks later, Austin rented a car and drove to Raleigh to celebrate her graduation with her family, but ended up losing her driver’s license at the beach. She couldn't rent a car to drive back to NJ without a license. James decided he wanted to get away from the NYC Covid-scene. He drove about 8 hours straight to Raleigh to pick her up and whisk her away to Asheville, NC, where they spent their “third date” in the mountains for a week, getting to know each other, hiking, working remotely, visiting breweries, and falling in love :). They were pretty much inseparable after that point, and the rest is history!