May 2nd, 2026

The first college class both Jack and Molly ever had, they had together. They sat on opposite sides of the small boardroom style classroom, but Jack swears up and down he spoke to Molly in this class (a fact Molly politely pretends to remember). Jack and Molly were also both involved with Acapella during their first semester at Christopher Newport University. Despite these similarities and proximities, Molly and Jack never got to know each other outside of a few (supposed) conversations before class. At the end of that first Fall semester 2013, Jack decided he was going to transfer to George Mason University. Fast forward 7 years to summer 2020. Molly just recently evacuated from the Peace Corps due to Covid-19, and moved in with her older brother, Ben, in Alexandria, VA. During the pandemic, Ben introduced Molly to the videogame, "Among Us", and it became a popular pandemic pastime with their friends since they could play and hangout while still social distancing. Among these friends was a man named Gray O'Reilly. Gray was a friend from college of both Molly and Ben, Ben's former roommate, and childhood best friends to none other than Jack Tarbell. While Ben and Gray lived together, Jack would come over to hangout with Gray, and in the process Jack and Ben became good friends as well. After Gray moved out, and Molly moved in, she was also re-introduced to Jack in the silly virtual spaceship of the Among Us videogame. It was obvious to everyone that Molly and Jack were being flirty during the games and unbeknownst to both of them, their friends, specifically Gray and Ben, were plotting behind their backs to get them together. On multiple occasions, there would be a scheduled time for the group to get on to play the game, but somehow everyone else would be "late" so it would be just Molly and Jack in the video call. Finally, in January 2021, Jack asked Molly on their first date. Because of the pandemic, their first several dates were virtual, but they had their first in person date on Valentine's Day weekend, 2021. Molly and Jack went ice skating at Pentagon Row in Arlington, VA and got hot chocolate- it snowed.