WE GETTIN' MARRIED!

Five days into January, a certain boy and girl were on their phones, looking for love. Were they hopeful or had they given up? I guess it was some mixture of both. The boy and the girl had experienced years of false starts, broken promises, heartbreak, and heartache. It’s strange that all of this would end on an app. For the sake of a story, though, let’s say they met over coffee and bagels. They talked. The boy was enamored with the girl. The girl was intrigued by the boy. They talked more. They Skyped for three hours. The boy asked her to breakfast on Sunday. The girl said, “Sure, if it’s after ten,” and what was only going to be a morning became a day, as brunch led to coffee, to Griffith Park in the rain, to dinner and a movie. Neither one of them wanted the day to end. It was as if they had just met someone they had always known, and would know for the rest of their lives.

If you think that blissful beginning of a story should have led straight to wedding bells and a pair of “I do’s,” then you would be right if this was an ordinary story. For this particular boy and girl, however, the story is anything but ordinary. You see, the girl couldn’t believe the boy was true, and she thought if he was true, then there must be something wrong about it all. The boy, for his part, believed he wasn’t enough, and tried to be someone for the girl he was not. Both were striving, rather than resting. So over many months they dated, split up, dated, and split up again. As much as they always came back together, they could not fall in step. Eventually, they said, "No more, it can't be right!" and ended it for good. It was May, and from summer to winter, they stood by their choice... if only to check in now and then.

I like to think of these two as planetary objects fallen into each other’s gravity. They had crossed paths too closely, and while they might circle for a while, they were bound to collide. After eight months apart, they agreed to meet up again. Only this “again” was the last time, and this time, it was right. What was shrouded in doubt a year ago suddenly appeared so clear. They confirmed their intentions and dated - with no fuss. On Valentine’s Day, the boy asked, “Should we... like... be official, I guess?” There was agreement, as confusing as that was. To the girl's relief, the boy asked again more clearly, two days later during a trip to Sedona, Arizona.

Is it fair that two people could be so certain about the same thing so soon? Although they both still had much to learn about each other and themselves, incredibly their questions were never, “But, do I...?” There was a knowing, a peace, a comfort, and excitement. Over the next year they adventured, worked hard, hugged and kissed and danced, and almost always talked of a life together. Is it really a surprise the boy asked her to marry him? Some say he waited too long. On a rooftop in downtown LA, during a January sunset, the boy gave her the gift of a ring and the question of a future. It was always "yes."