We first become friends at work. Vasya swings by my desk multiple times a day, and I fail at playing it cool.

The day after Vasya's birthday and a week after mine. He's never tried Thai food before, and I, in utter shock, suggest my favorite place. I will never have so many doors chivalrously open for me on a date as I will on this one.

And thus, another love story is born.

We move in together. Little do we know what the whole world will look like just a few months later.

Feeling much better after (dramatically) recovering from my second vaccine, Vasya suggests that we go for a nice walk one Sunday afternoon in April. We had been cooped up all weekend, he painting our entire place solo while I uselessly stared back from a fog of blankets and Tylenol. We have tickets to go to the Chicago Botanic Garden the very next day, so I wonder if ~something~ is afoot for tomorrow, but certainly not today. I still don't quite get the hint even when he stops during our walk, points behind me, and actually says, “What’s that?” But it's a slick move that works.