Sterling and I first met at Costco of all places. To me, he was just this cheerful guy with a great attitude, always smiling and easy to be around. Then one day, out of nowhere, he was grumpy—and it was so unlike him that I finally told him, “I don’t know what’s going on, but you need to knock it off.” Later I found out he’d just been passed over for a promotion. Luckily, his usual smile soon returned. We started working together more, exchanged numbers, and began hanging out. But before long, Sterling moved away. Even so, we stayed in touch with little check-ins here and there. On one of his visits back, I messaged him to say how nice it was to see him. He never responded. Not until three years later—on Facebook—when he finally wrote, “Sorry for the delay… want to hang out?” That hangout was the beginning of everything. From that day forward, Sterling and I have been inseparable, and I can’t imagine life any other way.