John and Tina met for the first time on February 5th, 2012 at a Super Bowl party in Hollywood. Both fresh off migrations from Chicagoland, they were summoned to the party by a mutual friend. John noticed the cute girl across the room almost immediately. There was just something about her, a familiarity he understood. While the New York Giants narrowly beat the New England Patriots, John and Tina couldn’t have cared less. They spent the entire game flirting, talking about their college days, and discussing their dreams of a life in show business. They both had early mornings the next day — Tina as a post-production PA, John as a rental car salesman — so they decided to call it a night. There was a palpable moment between them on the sidewalk before they parted ways, a lingering magnetism… but alas, they said their goodbyes and walked off in different directions. John didn’t get fifteen feet before he turned back and called out for Tina’s number. There was just something about her. An undeniable instinct. Like the universe was saying, “Don’t be an idiot. Get the girl’s number.” John and Tina went on a couple of dates and got along great. Every time they were together that same feeling of familiarity would come back to John. They came from similar places, they had similar social lives, they shared similar goals, but even with all these signs pointing in the right direction, they lost touch. Months went by. John struggled with the reality of trying to make it as a screenwriter in Hollywood, while Tina rose through the ranks of TV post-production. John never stopped thinking about Tina. He used to follow Tina’s life on Facebook and imagine what he would say to her if he ever saw her again. And then one day, completely out of the blue, the universe awarded him just that opportunity. On October 7th, 2012, John boarded a flight at O'Hare International Airport. He found his seat, got settled in, and then saw her, walking down the aisle in his direction. When Tina passed by, John called out to her. They chatted briefly, then Tina moved off to find her seat. It wasn’t quite the reunion John had envisioned, but it was something. As the plane was about to take off, the pilot’s voice said, “All passengers must de-board due to a maintenance issue.” John and Tina found each other in the terminal and were able to rekindle the flame between them. Once again, that familiar feeling descended over them. Before re-boarding the plane, John and Tina decided they would be friends. All was right in the world… sort of. Over the years, John and Tina moved in and out of each other’s lives, dating other people along the way, but there was always something there in the back of their minds. A creeping notion of “what if”. What if they got together? What if they actually gave it a shot? John and Tina began to hang out more and more. They would go to bars and chat about their lives, their relationships, and their families back home. As time went on, these get-togethers morphed into hiking the Los Liones Trailhead, going to the Huntington Library, or hanging out on their friend Charlie’s boat, and eventually, it became clear the same feelings they felt on the sidewalk in front of the apartment in Hollywood had never left. Finally, on October 1st, 2017, five years and eight months after their first meeting, John and Tina officially started their relationship and never looked back. In December of 2021, after sending Tina on a carefully crafted scavenger hunt with the help of their closest friends, John popped the question on the sidewalk in front of the apartment where he got her number almost ten years earlier. In the exact same location where John nearly missed his chance, but turned back at the last second, because the universe told him, “Don’t be an idiot. Get the girl’s number.”