Simone and Roop met as students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. On April 20, 2018, Simone and her fellow housemates at the esteemed Ol' Bess (i.e., the house Simone lived in) decided to throw a beautiful gala to honor the opening of David Tepper's David Tepper Presents: the David Tepper Quad, powered by David Tepper. Unfortunately for Simone, one of her esteemed housemates, who will remain unnamed for legal reasons, decided to invite his fraternity brothers. What this poor fool didn't know was that the President of his fraternity—Roop “Zachy Football” Roop—was a sicko with no friends or life and was eager to attend this party. Mr. Roop gathered up his belongings and pals MF, Holly, and potentially Jiahao, and proceeded to Ol' Bess. Mr. Roop was extremely excited to celebrate David Tepper. Once Mr. Roop and his entourage arrived at Ol' Bess, Mr. Roop decided to celebrate David Tepper by partaking in much fanfare. As part of this fanfare, Mr. Roop signed up for David Tepper's pong invitational, and was matched with Pong Partner Emma and Coach Sophine Stein (note: Simone foolishly introduced herself to Mr. Roop as Sophine). Mr. Roop showed off his skills in the invitational by drinking a lot; subsequently, he became quite loud (i.e., standard Roop family volume levels). Coach Sophine was highly impressed, but Mr. Roop was more impressed with Coach Sophine's charm and wit. Mr. Roop remembers thinking that Pong Coach Sophine was cool, like when a cartoon frog smokes a cigarette. Mr. Roop and Coach Sophine then proceeded to hang out at the party and enjoy the festivities, and Mr. Roop completely remembers all of these wonderful details. At the end of the night, Mr. Roop walked home, happy to have met someone so totally rad. Sophine also enjoyed meeting Mr. Roop. And the rest is history.

Fast forward to September 1, 2018, and now that Mr. Roop is thinking about it, this was the party celebrating the opening of the Tepper Quad, so move all of the thoughts about that in your mind from that party to this party. Mr. Roop was too twisted to see a theme at the other party, LOL! September 1, 2018, also known as the Day that Love Blossomed and the day that Roop Trounced Peter, was a beautiful day. Once again, the four horsemen of Ol’ Bess decided to throw a party, this time honoring David Tepper’s beautiful quad (note, for those of you not familiar with CMU, it is actually a tremendously ugly and non-functional building (in Roop’s opinion, haha, can’t sue me for defamation now David Tepper!)). This time, every housemate demanded that Mr. Roop be invited (including he who must not be named), as they all thoroughly enjoyed his shenanigans at the April 20th party (though none enjoyed his shenanigans as much as Simone did). Mr. Roop of course came with his entourage, including quite possibly Jiahao. For this party, Mr. Roop was excited to see his old pals again, but was particularly looking forward to seeing Pong Coach Sophine again. Sophine was indeed happy to see Mr. Roop and, dare I say, rather charmed by his beautiful long hair he had grown out over the summer. Mr. Roop and Sophine enjoyed hanging out and getting to know more about each other. However, there is a villain in every story. In this story, the villain's name was Peter, and he was trying to hit on Pong Coach Sophine as well, but Mr. Roop easily trounced Peter (and later trounced him again in some history mini about surveillance or something like that). Also, apparently Peter was at the original party celebrating the opening of the Tepper Quad (except, remember, it had a different theme). The night culminated in Mr. Roop letting Simone know that he thought she was pretty cool, and Simone responded by saying nothing but immediately making him a quesadilla. And the rest is history. After that night, Simone blew up Mr. Roop’s phone with various emojis, some witty, some painfully not. Eventually, Mr. Roop got the hint, and asked Simone to dinner that weekend. Simone of course accepted (she would’ve been a fool not to). Mr. Roop and Simone proceeded to the Harris Grill, enjoyed a wonderful dinner and later a movie (The Game Plan), and the rest was history. Later, the Harris Grill burned to the ground, in what was an incredibly bad omen.

After several successful dates to P.F. Changs and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity together, Mr. Roop and Simone locked it down on a beautiful night that will live forever in infamy. October 13, 2018, was the most important day in Simone and Mr. Roop’s life—it was the day that Simone met John Roop (and the day that Simone agreed that Mr. Roop was her boyfriend and they were dating). Yes, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, that second part came after the meeting John Roop part. Please don’t make fun of it. I already have such low self esteem. You don’t know what it does to a person when three separate groups of friends who don’t know each other all say that they’re only friends with you because your dad pays them. I get that it’s a hilarious joke and it is funny, but it’s concerning when it happens organically multiple times. Alright. Let me center myself. Ok, back to the story. On that night, Roop’s parents were visiting for parent’s weekend, and Simone and Roop had been going out for about a month and half. But, Mr. Roop was certain that he and Simone had a connection, and asked Simone if she wanted to meet his parents. She agreed, and a date was set for Muddy Water’s Oyster Bar. The food was unspectacular and borderline inedible, John Roop was of course on bad behavior and took a picture of Simone (oh yes, I’m sure it was of the “seafood tower” father, that’s why it’s out of focus and Simone is centered, smh), but Simone endured and accepted that this is what it takes to date the Roopler. After that, Simone went to a Halloween party (on October 13???) and Roop, his parents, MF, Holly, and the inscrutable Anthony Chan went to Hemingway’s (a beloved Pitt bar), where John Roop proceeded to get way too focused on one of those bubble hockey games. After Hemingway’s, Roop went home and texted Simone, who was at the aforementioned Halloween party—surprisingly five doors down from The Fort (the residence of Roop). Roop went to the party to pick-up Simone, and was met at the door by a curious fellow named the Zebraman. The Zebraman was a part-human part-Zebra hybrid, in that he was a person wearing a Zebra onesie. The Zebraman was with his friend, who doesn’t have a name, and they were talking with someone. Simone came out of the party, with her housemate Sarina (but just for fun, let’s imagine instead of Sarina that it was Roop’s beloved Uncle Brian), and the Zebraman was activated. We all shot the breeze and hung out for a bit, but the Zebraman was fairly tipsy and about to drink from the “bibbling” brook. Suddenly, the Zebraman slapped both of his sweaty paws onto Simone’s cheeks and was going in for the kill, much to the surprise of everyone. Roop heroically said “no no no” and brushed the feeble Zebraman aside, thereby saving Simone and asserting himself as her rightful suitor. Simone accepted this claim, and the rest is history.

Simone and Roop then spent a lot of time together, including a post-Roop graduation road trip, weekends while Roop was in DC and Simone in Pittsburgh (and later Richmond), a lot of time quarantined in the Stein’s basement/Pittsburgh/Richmond, vacations across the globe (only domestic), chilling with their beloved dogs Ava and BMO, and creating a wonderful life together in Richmond, and the rest is history.

On one beautiful day, November 12, 2023, to be exact, Mr. Roop proposed to Simone at Frick Park in Pittsburgh. Simone finished eating her bagel (~7 minute delay), said yes, and the rest is history.