Mallory's childhood friend, Shelby, encouraged her to attend a "Nickelodeon" themed party at her place in Watertown, MA in April 2016. After a lot of recent life changes, Mal thought it would be a fun time and said sure! A few days later, Mal attended the party dressed as Reggie Rocket (a Nickelodeon classic), and connected with some old friends from high school and met some new ones as well! Reggie Rocket briefly met Barnacle Boy (from Spongebob Squarepants) and continued to mingle with other party guests before heading home. A few weeks later, Shelby graduated from Dental School and her mom, Anna, threw her a killer grad party. Mal attended and was happy to see some of the new friends she met at the Nickelodeon party a few weeks prior. Barnacle Boy (no longer dressed in said costume) approached Mal to say hello and possibly buy her a drink. Mal said "Hey! Sure, sounds good. I remember you, but what was your name again?" "It's Danny" said Barnacle Boy and it was history from there. Actually, over the next couple weeks, Mal worked pretty hard to make 'Mal and Dan' a thing. Dan was certainly interested but Mal was the one to really put in the work at first. Mal strategically invited herself to several events that she knew Danny would be at (Bar Harbor camping trip, Levitate Music Festival, a Kayaking trip and a 4th of July celebration at Dan's parents' house). Slowly but surely, Dan and Mal became pretty inseparable. Dan really knew he found someone special when Mal (gracefully) fell out of the canoe and into the river while laughing through the entire ordeal and not letting her wet clothes, waterlogged phone and slight embarrassment get the best of her.

Summer of 2016 was one for the books. Mal and Danny officially became an item in mid-July although most close to them would agree it was pretty official before that. Mal spent much of her time at "Avon", which was the Nickelodeon Party house which Danny lived at with four of his best friends. Besides Mal and Danny getting to know each other alone, "the crew" spent the summer watching sunsets on the roof, going to concerts, tending to the rooftop garden, playing pinball on sun porch and hanging out with the two resident dogs. The summer was nothing short of magical and Mal and Dan were starting to really look forward to their future together. On Halloween, Mal dressed up as Flo from Progressive Insurance, and Dan was Jake from State Farm. At the end of the night, Dan told Mal he loved her for the first time. Before saying I love you back, Mal wanted to check that Dan actually loved her, and it wasn't just "Jake" that loved "Flo". Costumes can make these things confusing. He laughed and confirmed that Dan truly loved Mal, and she said through a beaming smile that she loved him back. Thinking back, it makes a lot of sense now since Jake and Flo are obviously rivals and don't love each other. Just about a month later, Mal and Dan embarked on a California Road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. Spending a week together in this capacity really solidified their love for each other. It truly was the best trip. Shortly after their return, they started to plan their move in together after their respective leases were up the following summer. It was official: Mal and Danny were madly in love.

Little did Mal know, it was about to be an exciting week. It was May of 2018 and Dan had just bought bicycles for Mal's birthday. "Want to go on a bike ride?" Dan asked after work one day. The two lovebirds biked on the rail trail around Boston and about five miles in, they decided to stop and sit by the river to take a break. Dan gushed to Mal about all the great things happening in their lives and how thankful he was to have found her. A beautiful sunset had started to form over the horizon and Mal thought to herself: this just couldn't get any better. The next thing Mal knew, Dan pulled a box out of his pocket with a beautiful ring inside and asked Mal to spend forever with him. She can't remember all the details, but it definitely included "oh my God, are you serious!?" and "YES!" She rode the whole way back home with a huge smile on her face while admiring her beautiful new ring and symbol of forever on her left hand. Surprisingly (graceful) Mal made it back on the bike without falling over. The next day, Mal walked across the stage to receive her diploma for her MBA (with Dan and her parents proudly watching from the audience) and the day after that, the offer on their very first house was accepted.