It all started on Lilli's twenty-first birthday in 2017. That summer, Lilli was a barely-paid intern in Washington, DC. She posted in a GroupMe of fellow UNC summer interns (whom she had never met) inviting them to swing by to celebrate. Pete showed up to her party with a half-full bottle of tequila in a Hawaiian shirt and the two instantly connected over having just returned from studying abroad — Lilli in France and Pete in Hong Kong. When the group went out later that night, Lilli scored herself some free taquitos, which really impressed Pete, and they went to one of DC's finest establishments, Nellie's Sports Bar. The next day, thanks to the encouragement of friends, Lilli texted Pete first. And after a few days of chatting, Pete asked Lilli to go on a proper date. At the end of the summer, they both returned to Chapel Hill for their senior year, unsure if their romance was just a summer fling. As luck would have it, they've been together ever since, a package deal from Chapel Hill to DC to Indianapolis to Bloomington to Chicago.