In the autumn of 2018, Alex found himself, once again, driving ‘Sandy,’ his 20 year-old Buick LeSabre, through the beautiful, desolate, and seemingly boundless desert between Southern California’s coastal mountains and those that outline the Phoenix valley and close the parenthetical journey. He had actually made this same crossing 8 years earlier, for similar reasons: the siren call of a new career opportunity. While the desert looked, smelled, and felt the same, this adventure could not have ended more differently. After rising through the ranks of Fortune 500 companies in Shanghai and New York, Rachel had returned home to the Valley a year prior to start her own tech company. While she met plenty of interesting people as she bounced between Phoenix and the Bay Area, her focus had been on building her business, and no-one had interested her enough to warrant much of a time-investment outside of those endeavors. Little did she know that in October, 2018 an aged, beige Buick was speeding through the desert and would change all of that. As the lights of San Francisco sparkled outside the window of her Uber, Rachel passed the time by swiping through dating profiles on her phone. She liked Hinge because it was more than just photos, users also answer prompts designed to reveal more of their personality, and one in particular had made her laugh. Underneath a dark-haired, bright-blue-eyed, smiling portrait of a stranger was the prompt “Match with me if…” to which he’d appended “you think I’m really, really, ridiculously good looking.” Rachel recognized the reference to the comedy ‘Zoolander’ immediately, reading the line the titular character's voice. She wasn’t sure about ‘really, really, ridiculously’ but he was definitely good looking, and clearly had a good sense of humor so she messaged him with a Zoolander reference of her own. 650 miles away in a pool chair beneath the desert stars, a notification pinged onto the screen of Alex’s phone, a notification that as he swiped it open made no indication that it was the opening line in the great love story of his life. Alex did realize as soon as he saw Rachel’s photos smiling back at him that something very good had just happened: a beautiful woman had started a conversation with him, and she was witty, and accomplished, and what’s better, she seemed to enjoy chatting with him. However, she did something VERY unusual in the dating-app world: Rachel proposed that they talk, like a bona fide phone call. Guessing (correctly) that she was a no-nonsense businesswoman who wanted to figure out if there was really a connection or not in an efficient manner, Alex took a deep breath and dialed her. Enraptured by one another, an hour and a half would fly by before they realized that they needed to say good-night, agreeing to meet for a date when Rachel returned from her trip. Alex messaged his friends back home, giddy with excitement over the immediacy and depth of connection he had just felt. He laid back and gazed up at the stars in the cooling desert night, feeling deep within that they had just aligned for him. Alex proposed three options for their date, and true to her nature Rachel chose the most adventurous one: rock-climbing gym. They went out for dinner afterward, and as they said goodbye, shared their first kiss. One good date led to another and another, and after just 6 weeks Alex was driving back early from Christmas in Lompoc to meet Rachel’s siblings that were home for the Holiday. On New Years 2019, just after the stroke of midnight, Alex asked ‘Will you make this the best year yet, and be my girlfriend?’ 2 weeks later as he waved goodbye to her in a parking lot he would accidentally blurt out ‘Bye, I love you.’ To which Rachel instinctively responded ‘Love you too.’ So within 3 months of their first conversation, they were so in love that the declaration popped out of their mouths like champagne corks powerless to hold back the excitement shooting them forth. Cheers!