In July 2021, Alyssa accepted a position with UC Davis Dermatology. It didn’t take long before a charming coworker named Jennifer swooped in, eager to make Alyssa feel at home. In her usual offhand way, Jennifer casually remarked, “You should totally date my son!” Alyssa was amused by the randomness of it but promptly brushed it off. But fate, it seems, had other plans. The very next day, as Alyssa sat at her desk, she looked up to see a man approaching her cubicle—a man who, in that split second, seemed like he had stepped straight out of her dreams. He was exactly her type. How exciting! Her heart skipped a beat. And then, to her surprise, he introduced himself as Nick—Jennifer’s son. He apparently worked in the office next door. Alyssa was momentarily crushed, thinking, no way could she ever pursue something with him. Nick, however, was undeterred. The moment he saw Alyssa, he knew with a certainty that it was only a matter of time before she would be his. For two years, they were close friends. They shared stories, traded jokes, bickered over whose opinions were superior (usually Alyssa’s), and laughed together at the absurdities of social media and office drama. Beneath their easy friendship, however, there was always a glimmer of something more—something flirtatious, something unspoken. And though Alyssa stubbornly refused to acknowledge it, she couldn’t quite ignore the spark that flickered between them. Then, in December of 2023, Nick decided it was time to take a chance. Armed with what he thought was a clever knock-knock joke (with an undeniably smooth pick-up line), he texted Alyssa. She, blissfully unaware of the joke’s true nature, simply replied, “Stupid.” And so, Nick was forced to spell out his intentions. And from that moment on, their story took a turn for the magical. The rest, as they say, is history...