First comes plague, then comes long-distance, then cohabitation, then a puppy, then... marriage. Jessica had just met up with her college friend, Spark, and his wife Angelica. Angelica had heard about the dating app Hinge. Jessica downloaded it. Later, she was at an Indian restaurant in Harlem with her college friend, Amber, who asked how the online dating was going. Jessica was tired of NYC dating -- too many people, everyone trying to be unique, weighing their options. She handed her phone to Amber, who proceeded to swipe through potentials. She held up the profile of a skinny bearded gentleman: "He's tall enough, and he's in a cave -- so he's adventurous." Jessica agreed -- she was past the days of screening someone for having the same name as her. They texted, everything checked out. They scheduled for their first video call April 4th. After that virtual meeting, Jessica knew... and the rest was history.

Even though they both lived in Manhattan at the time, Jessica was in Harlem on 119th St and Jesse was in Washington Heights on 157th St. In NYC, where living in different boroughs can mean a long-distance relationship, it might as well have been "two-transfers-long-distance". They met up in person for the first time at Riverside Park wearing masks. Jessica had just finished being symptomatic with COVID two weeks prior (teachers got it first). Jesse talked about the time he saw a killer whale mother and calf on the Washington coast, hinting at more adventures in store. They planned to meet up at all the parks in between their apartments as the pandemic went on and on. The first time Jesse walked Jessica back to her apartment, like a gentleman, he didn't even mind the 50 minute walk home (to avoid public transit during peak COVID). He knew that all of it was going to be worth it.