Skylar and Will met in the late winter of 2022 at The Goat in Manchester, NH — basically the only place in town where you can actually dance. Sky had gone out on a whim with her college roommates, and Will was there by surprise, celebrating graduating with his paramedic license alongside his friends and coworkers. Will says he noticed Sky the moment she walked in wearing a light-up blue cowboy hat and immediately thought she was captivating. When she walked past him, he decided he wasn’t going to try to talk to her… and then the universe clearly had other plans. It wasn’t until a bit later, when Sky made her way over to the table where Will and his friends were standing, that they actually spoke. Sky stepped right next to Will and immediately started calling out her friend’s name — her friend was deep in conversation with one of Will’s friends across the table, and she couldn’t squeeze over. When she finally got her attention, she yelled, “You good?” Her friend shouted back, “SKY! These guys are all firefighters — they can be in your thesis!” (Sky’s thesis was on first responder burnout.) Will saw his moment. “I’ll be in your thesis,” he said with straight seriousness but also a little swagger. Sky rolled her eyes and said, “Sure you will,” then turned back to make sure her friend was all set. Her friend continued, “See? He will be in your thesis!” Will followed up with, “See? She believes me. Take out your phone. I am serious.” They kept talking about Sky’s research, where they went to school, and realized they had both gone to Saint Anselm College — just at different times. After a few minutes of easy conversation and bonding over favorite professors, Sky finally said, “So are you going to ask me to dance with you or what?” And they danced together for the rest of the night. When the lights came on, Sky asked to put her number in Will’s phone and hurriedly typed it in while her friends were dragging her toward the door. In the chaos, she accidentally put in the wrong number — something she didn’t realize until the next morning when she remembered his texts turning green, even though they both had iPhones. Here’s the part Will loves telling: It wasn’t until two years later — long after he learned Sky is terrible with names and technology — that she admitted she’d paid 99 cents for an app that shows the last contact added to your phone, just so she could text Will her real number that morning. He still teases her that she was trying to blow him off, but we all know the connection was too strong for that. So, technically, you could say the reason they are together is… an app. Life had its on-and-off moments while they both grew, but they always found their way back to each other. And even though Will can’t stand clutter, one thing is agreed on: the light-up blue cowboy hat stays forever.