Angelique met their mutual friend Aza at a summer music program in 2016. She told Aza “if you have any single friends, hook a sista up!” In December of that year Angelique needed an accompaniment for her chorus class and their upcoming concert. She texted Aza asking for a piano track and he happened to be at Jonathan’s apartment. He said “Remember when you asked me to hook a sista up? Well I’m at my friend’s place and he’s an amazing pianist. Why don’t you come by and he can record the tracks for you?” Angelique had already planned in the Fall of 2016 on moving to California that upcoming summer and Jonathan already had plans to perform all over the world. They decided to stay in touch. Over the next few years they got together occasionally. When the Pandemic of 2020 hit, they reconnected. They started hanging out over zoom at night a couple of times a month. In the Fall of 2020 Jonathan was planning on visiting his brother in Alaska. Angelique said “Alaska is really far from the East Coast… why don’t you stay in Oakland for a few nights before heading back.” Angelique’s version: “I conned him into coming to visit me. I had a good feeling about him.” Jonathan’s version: “She didn’t con me into anything. I knew what was up the whole time. Why would I have made an extra trip for myself? We’d been hitting it off for a few months already…”

We were at the Billy Joel concert at MSG. It was the last song of the set, “Piano Man”, before the 4 song encore. As the whole of MSG sang along at the top of their lungs, Jonathan pulled Angelique in and whispered in her ear “Will you marry me?” Angelique said in his ear “Yes!!!” Then she pulled away, looked at him, gave him a hug and said in his ear “Actually, considering all the planning I’ve already started, no…never mind.” Obviously Angelique was kidding. As the music wound down the man next to Jonathan, a complete stranger, said “Congratulations you two! I hope you have a long healthy and happy life together.” At this point, Angelique actually started questioning whether she misheard Jonathan. Maybe she had projected a proposal onto him, because why else would a complete stranger be congratulating them? There was no ring at the concert, that came later in the night. The stranger said congratulations again to them as everyone left MSG and how happy he was for them. On the way home Angelique was reality testing and still unsure if they were actually engaged now. She asked Jonathan “What was going on with the guy next to you?” Hoping he would say “That was really weird, I didn’t tell him I was going to propose to you.” But instead he only said “That was really weird. I didn’t really talk to him.” Angelique was still not sure if they were actually engaged and didn’t want to sound stupid by asking if she had misheard him during Piano Man. As they walked home Jonathan said “I can’t believe we’re engaged now and that guy was so strange. How did he know? I didn’t even know I was going to do it?” Angelique finally had her confirmation. They were in fact engaged! As they walked home they settled on three possibilities…The stranger was an Alien with sonic hearing, he was a human with super hearing, or most likely he was a descendant of theirs traveling back in time to see them the night of their engagement.