Julia and Jacob met in Autumn 2017. Julia's best friend from college, Zahra Ahmed, invited her up to Westchester to celebrate Zahra completing her first trimester of medical school at New York Medical College. After Julia arrived, they went to a bar called Whiskey Creek to celebrate. Immediately after entering the bar, Zahra told Julia she wanted to introduce her to some of her new med school friends. She pulled her over to Jacob and introduced them with the line: "Julia, this is Jacob. Jacob, this is Julia. Jacob is single. I'm getting a drink, goodbye." And then she promptly disappeared. Though initially confused, they were fortunately able to muddle through the conversation and ended up having a very fun night out with their friends. The next day Jacob texted Julia asking her if she wanted company on her way back into the city as he was headed that way to visit with friends. They boarded the train, which was more packed than either of them had ever seen it, but chatted happily during the journey back, squashed up against a nice lady who was probably very confused about what kind of first date she was witnessing.