Let me tell you a story about two lovely and in love kids I know, Ben and Becca. Like all good love stories, their story begins thanks to an honest misunderstanding and a broken water heater. Pretty standard start, in my experience.

By the summer of 2015, Ben and Becca had known each other for almost two years. They started out as strangers, became friendly, and eventually considered the other a friend. At times, Becca was intrigued by the idea of becoming more than friends, but because Ben was a dense, oblivious, destitute dunce, her advances never got far and she would move on with life.

Then, in June 2015, Ben reached the age of 28. Because she's a nice person, Becca wished Ben a fairly vanilla "Happy Birthday" along with the well-wish that he get some ice cream on his birthday.

Upon receiving this message, Ben exercised that aforementioned talent for being dense and oblivious and inexplicably interpreted Becca's innocent birthday message as an invitation to an ice cream date. Today, Ben insists this imbecility was clearly the hand of destiny, but back then, Becca just thought he was a bit touched, as Ben responded to Becca's simple "Happy Birthday" by asking for a rain check, since he was having steak with his family that night.

Quite nonplussed, Becca rolled with it and what ensued were a few weeks of rather bizarre flirtation, replete with a Harry Potter parody of the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song and the requisite telling of Romeo and Juliet in emojis.

I know, it got weird.

Well, things came to a head July 4th weekend. After Ben and Becca spent a nice day at the beach with friends, everyone went their separate ways to clean up. For Ben, this meant heading home to a freezing cold shower, since, as foreshadowed earlier, the water heater in his home was broken.

Still a nice person, albeit with an ulterior motive, Becca mentioned that Ben could use her shower, a hot offer Ben accepted in a flash.

By this time, neither Ben nor Becca knew where their relationship stood anymore--they had been friends, but after spending weeks texting back and forth, they both felt like maybe they were heading towards something more. But then again, maybe they weren't.

Reminder: they collaborated on a Harry Potter parody theme song. Things were weird.

Well, as he stood in the blessedly hot shower, Ben deliberated and decided that it was high time he throw caution to the wind and just ask Becca out to dinner, dammit. Sure, they shared many mutual friends and sure, it could get real awkward if things didn't work out. But also, it could get awkward regardless, because, well, they were both just generally awkward people. So, if things were about to get awkward no matter what, then why dilly-dally about it?

As he determinedly came downstairs from the shower, Ben found Becca sitting in the same position on the couch as when he had left her ten minutes earlier, seemingly re-reading the same page of the same book. For some reason, this sight unnerved Ben, and to buy some extra time to work up his courage, he crossed the room to put his shoes on.

As he lifted his first foot to slide into his sneaker, he heard Becca--who still hadn't moved a muscle--call out to him. "Can you come over here and sit down?"

Ben's stomach dropped to the floor instead of his foot, and he floated dreamlike to the couch. He could sense that something momentous was about to happen, but he could tell whether it would be good or bad.

Becca put her book down and turned to him. "What's going on here? We never really texted each other before and in the past two weeks, not a day has gone by where we haven't sent a message back and forth. Why are you doing this? Do you, you know, like me or am I just being crazy?"

Ben, dense and oblivious as ever, wasn't exactly sure what to say. Nevertheless, he said it.

"Well--and I swear, this is 100% the truth--but if you waited thirty more seconds before calling me over, I would have done this anyways." Deep breath. "The truth is, would you like to go out to dinner with me?"

What ensued, immediately thereafter, was the very awkward conversation Ben had anticipated, which was followed less immediately, but still thereafter, by many, many more awkward and weird and nutty, but also wonderful and witty and simply perfect conversations.

And also, vacations to Europe and the Grand Canyon and everywhere between, visits with family and a Nana and a Mom-Mom, musicals and movies, cold nights in and warm evenings out, walks with Zoey (the dog) and more trips to the beach, New Years' Eves and Shabbat Shaloms, eventually an engagement and soon a wedding.

Oh, and also ice cream. Always and forever ice cream.