We met in the Fall of 2018 in San Diego as graduate students, when we joined the same research lab. The unofficial beginning of our relationship came during a field study in the Summer of 2019. We were working 10–14 hours a day, often the first to arrive and always the last to leave, for nearly three months straight, seven days a week. During that time, we got to know each other incredibly well, building both personal and professional trust. Despite having a sense of where things were headed, it took us about a year before we officially began dating. A few months later, we said “I love you” during a staycation in a small beach town south of La Jolla. Coincidentally, it was the same weekend that everything began shutting down due to COVID. We were playing pool in a small bar when we overheard the bartender saying they wouldn’t close until the cops forced them to. For professional reasons, we kept our relationship private from most people who didn’t need to know. During that time, we spent nearly every weekend together watching movies, playing board games, and relaxing with our cat, Eddie. After we both graduated with our PhDs, Sam started a new job in New Mexico, and Ryan moved to Boulder, Colorado. One silver lining of the distance was that Ryan was able to secretly work on designing a very special engagement ring. It includes metal from both Sam’s grandmother’s wedding band and Ryan’s great-grandmother’s band. Today, much like in graduate school, we work in the same lab and spend nearly all of our time together. When we’re not planning our wedding, we enjoy exploring Albuquerque—trying new restaurants, discovering new board games, and gradually upgrading Eddie’s sleeping arrangements (he now has at least two cat beds per room, plus an entire queen-sized bed he has claimed for himself). Lately, we’ve also become hooked on doing the New York Times crossword together each evening over dinner while gently keeping Eddie from sneaking bites off our plates.