Jake and Zayda’s story begins long before they ever exchanged names. Both grew up in Dallas, Texas; she went to Ursuline Academy, and he went to Jesuit College Prep, whose students often crossed paths but somehow didn’t quite meet. Every fall morning in high school, Jake was out with the cross-country team running laps around the football field while Zayda and the marching band drilled their routines just a few feet away. Jake, too focused on his running times, never noticed the music, and Zayda, too focused on her tempo, never noticed him circling around her. For three years, he quite literally ran laps around her, and still, they never met. Their paths kept running parallel into college. Both went on to the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ’Em!). Jake studied engineering, and Zayda chose business. He joined his clubs, she joined hers. They went to the same tailgates and even some of the same campus events, but once again, their names remained unknown to each other. It was as though they kept standing in the same circles, never realizing the other was right there. That all finally changed in the spring of 2019. Through mutual friends, they were introduced—and in an instant, the invisible string tying their lives together became impossible to ignore. Zayda noticed Jake’s Kairos cross from Jesuit and asked, “Is that a Kairos cross?” What followed was the exchange of familiar stories: Jesuit, Ursuline, mutual friends, shared memories of places and experiences that had them running side by side for years. Suddenly, what had always been concentric circles finally came together. Soon after, they went on their first official date at Patrizi’s in east Austin. Hours of nonstop laughter and conversation later, neither wanted the evening to end. Days later, when Jake prepared to move back to Dallas for work, he asked Zayda if she’d take a chance on long-distance with him. She said yes. From mornings spent unknowingly sharing the same football field, to late nights discovering how much they’d always had in common, Jake and Zayda’s story is one of timing—always circling close, until finally, fate brought them together. And from that day on, the conversation hasn’t stopped.