They were friends. Mari was at school at Humboldt State, Niko was at home in Tulare and they both happened to be online. Mari sent the first message. What was meant to be an innocent hello, how are you? turned into a late night conversation. She thought she wouldn't hear from him for another year. He messaged her back two days later asking how her weekend went. From then on there wasn't a day they weren't talking to one another. Four years later on Christmas Day, he took her up to Sunset Rock and proposed.