Junior year of high school, Tess DiNapoli eased her way into a new group friends that her then-best friend was part of. This group of rebel kids didn't fit in any stereotypical niche in high school. Most were from the Santa Cruz mountains, some were from the valley of San Jose, like her. She knew some of them indirectly from being in the same classes on occasion, such as an Eric Durante. She'd vaguely remembered him from two years prior as a freshman. He sat near the back of English class with his buddies. She didn't know him then, talk to him, or pay him much attention. (Then, Tess didn't pay most boys much attention back then.) Fast forward, and she'd met her people, loved hanging out with her friends every weekend - bonfires in Santa Cruz, random drives through the mountains, going to movies, all the things. Fast forward again, and she's got a mad crush on him. Eventually they go to prom together - as friends. She knows she's leaving for the Pacific Northwest that Fall for college. Fast forward again, and he's helping her move up to Portland, Oregon. That's what friends do, right? "Have you ever thought of taking our friendship further?" He asks one night in Portland, while visiting, after seeing a horror movie together. ... "Yes?" Hiding in fact, that yes, she had. For a long time.

At a stunning restaurant in Malibu on the 16th anniversary of their relationship, Eric asked Tess, casually, after they'd had a custom meal and several glasses of wine, "So... should we get married?" Like in a more serious way than the occasional conversation about marriage had been in previous years. Probably the longest, most awkward pause of Eric's life followed. In what felt like an eternity later, and a bathroom trip, Tess joined him in the restaurant's fancy bar, ordered them champagne, and said, "Yes. Let's do it."