This couple’s love story started when the world was upside down. The mask mandate was in place; we thought twice before meeting up in large crowds; we got a negative COVID test result before heading home to see our grandparents; working from home became a thing; and bars, restaurants, and theaters tried their best to keep people six feet away from each other. Yet, in the midst of all this, a Mexican-American guy from the east side of a small beach town — Ventura, California — began to fall for a Nicaraguan-American girl from the city of Los Angeles, at the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP (“LW”) in Downtown Los Angeles. By the summer of 2021, return to office was at its early stages and LW was allowing its lawyers to go into the office, so long as they wore masks. And that is where our story begins. Yesenia, who had started at LW in March 2020 (the week of the shutdown), took return to office as the first opportunity to get to know her colleagues. Joey, on the other hand, took this as the first opportunity to ask Yesenia Judith Barberena out to grab a salad at lunch — along with other colleagues, of course (e.g., Juan Carlos Olivares). After finding out that they both liked (or in Joey’s case, pretended to know of) that Mexican singer Luis Miguel, these group lunches slowly transitioned into one-on-one lunches, which then organically transitioned into daily coffees runs. By November 2021, Joey was enamored with Yesenia; the two could talk about anything — their love for any Spanish Netflix series (club of cuervos, who killed Sara, the queen of flow), their love for Mexico (Zacatecas, Puebla, Mexico City), and their loving families. But did Yesenia feel the same way, or was she just being friendly? It’s a fine line, but Joey took a chance and invited Yesenia to his 30th birthday. Not knowing if Yesenia would actually attend, and unbeknownst to Yesenia — like Gatsby throwing his parties to impress Daisy — Joey rented out a bar called Lanea’s in Santa Monica, and made every effort to impress Yesenia with his party. On the day of the event, while Joey greeted his closest friends who showed up to the party, the question at the top of his mind was whether Yesenia would actually show up. Sure enough, as fate would have it, Yesenia showed up to Joey’s 30th birthday, and the rest is history. Well, almost, because as Joey would soon learn, he still needed to impress Yesenia’s 7 pound Maltese named Pantufla that he was worthy of Yesenia. After 15-20 visits to Yesenia’s house, Joey could finally hug Yesenia without Pantufla biting him. Four months later, the couple was off to South Africa on a safari tracking white Rhinos, stargazing under the African sky, and coming up close and personal with lions, buffalos, leopards, and hippos. The couple rapidly fell in love with each other after this trip, and by the end of 2023, Joey was ready to propose. On December 24, 2023, after drawing some inspiration from one of Yesenia’s favorite romantic comedy movies “Serendipity,” Joey placed the engagement ring in a jewelry box, wrapped it, and placed it inside another box that he wrapped, and so forth, until the jewelry box was a box within a box, within a box, within a box . . . Then, on that calm Christmas Eve, as Yesenia unwrapped her last gift of the night that Joey had gotten her, Joey got down on his knee, in front of Yesenia’s parents, sister, and grandmother and asked her to be his wife. Yesenia agreed, and they both look forward to celebrating this day with all of you.