Taf and Anna have each called a lot of places home. Somehow, their paths kept nearly crossing. They overlapped in New Haven for a year. Then in Boston for another. Same university, same cities, same time, and never actually meeting. It took New York to finally make it happen.

For their first date, they went to Patent Pending, a speakeasy in Manhattan. Anna’s first impression of Taf was that he was an excellent listener and very serious. It turns out they are both deeply unserious people, which has kept things quite entertaining ever since, including a growing list of made-up names for things that now feel completely official. The rest of Anna’s very enthusiastic first impressions are safely preserved in her text threads with her closest friends.

By the second or third date, it already felt different. Anna beating Taf at mini golf was a shocking development and a personal highlight that has not been repeated since. But what really stood out was how obvious it was to everyone else. Anna’s friends kept saying the same thing: “You look SO happy.” They were right.