This story is one of deep, yet surprising romance; a burgeoning love that came from nowhere! Jamie and Santiago met in August of 2015 in the lush green of the deep Oregon woods. They were both working an event when a friend decided to play matchmaker and set them up....except it didn't go that way at all! Polite hellos were exchanged, but there was no spark. Jamie didn't appreciate being apart of her friends amorous machinations and Santiago felt bemused and wondered who this seemingly shy, but beautiful woman was and why she was being thrust upon him. That day faded and as a few years passed Jamie and Santi found themselves in similar circles, they became friends, but never, no never, was there romance. It wasn't until Santiago moved to San Diego at the beginning of 2019 that they reconnected, over square dancing of all things, and with their original matchmaker, Maddie, present. No deep flames were kindled that evening, but a spark, the renewal of their connection, was formed. With that spark Santiago invited Jamie on a trip with him to Guatemala, where he needed her help carrying bags through the airport...don't ask...It was there, in the streets of Antigua, a second home to Santiago, that they fell into the inevitable, blissful, hopeless love that had awaited them those years prior. Their love was formed in a silent, wordless, emotional elegance, it hung in the air between them, thick and lingering, so that when it was time to say goodbye they found it almost painful, unnatural to part. They soon contrived to see one another again a few weeks later in Arizona, where, under a rare, simmering and foggy rainy day in the desert, amidst the myriad sounds of the cactus strewn landscape and the luscious tendrils of creosote in their noses they admitted to each other what they both knew, they were hopelessly and inexplicably in love. From that day they were inseparable, traveling the country and world together, until finding home again in San Diego.