It started almost a decade ago in Washington, D.C. Jess had just graduated college into a really super cool job market and was freelancing/funemployed, and Alex was a fresh-faced Hill staffer working in the office of U.S. Senator Mark Begich. Jess knew a grand total of two people in D.C. One of those people invited her to a barbecue, and she decided to take the other one -- a dear (platonic) family friend -- as her date. Alex was there with a girl whose name really isn't relevant to the story, which he swears was also platonic but Jess maintains to this day that she was absolutely 100% into him. Whatever. The important thing is that Jess assumed Alex was dating The Girl Who Shall Not Be Named, and Alex assumed Jess was dating her friend. That is, until the after party, when the four of them found themselves imbibing and dancing at Madam's Organ, a D.C. institution known for its live music and abundant liquor. Let's just say things progressed to a point where Jess and Alex found it appropriate to inquire as to each other's romantic availability. They discovered, much to their surprise and mutual delight, that they were wholly untethered. And there, beneath the mural of the Madam's heaving bossom, they kissed. A couple weeks later, they went on their first date, which turned into an all-day marathon of admiring spitting orangutans at the zoo; gorging on popcorn and Sour Patch Kids while watching the forgettable "Public Enemies"; eating dinner at the historic and diviest of dives, the Hawk and Dove; and watching "Flight of the Concords," which Alex swore Jess would LOVE but she was just kinda meh about. But, Jess did LOVE Alex. And he loved her. And the rest, as they say, is history.