Terry Hall, University of Washington - William was a new resident advisor (RA) on the scene, with all the wisdom of a single freshman year behind him, he was ready to be a role model for the next generation. Carly was a bright-eyed incoming student who had just moved in and was headed to her first all-floor meeting. Little did either of them know that this meeting was about to set in course actions that would change their lives forever. At the meeting, William laid down the law in his typically charming way, and sprinkled in a couple of jokes with varying degrees of effectiveness. Over the course of that meeting, Carly got her first feeling of a crush. As the year went on, Carly spent a lot of time playing slap jack, studying, and loitering in William's room (often with her friend Jackie) and a friendship formed. William was dating someone else at the time, and definitely knew Carly had a big crush, but for now, their paths were set to diverge.

Seattle, WA - Time had passed and Carly and William's friendship had remained. They would see each other at birthdays, going aways, and all over their IG timelines (especially when Carly liked William's thirst traps). They had exchanged DMs over the years, but hadn't seen each other in a few years since Carly moved away to New Zealand and William went down to Atlanta. In 2019 they were both were back in Seattle, and Carly had just reached a milestone in her yoga teacher journey: not laughing when someone farted in her class. Seeing an opening, William chose this as a moment to slide into the DMs and see what Carly had been up to. He offered to come rip ass in her class and Carly graciously accepted. After a class where William walked in with only one minute to spare, they went to Empire Roasters and caught up. After all these years, they settled in to the same friendship as before, but this time things had changed. They had grown individually, and grown more interested in each other.

After leaving coffee, William invited Carly to his family's viewing party of the Solstice Parade (from the funeral home). Carly said she was going to go already (lie) and William forgot he was riding naked in the parade until he walked away (lie of omission). On the day of the parade, William was painted head to toe as a giraffe and Carly had scrounged up a friend group to go with. Carly arrived late (convenient) and missed the main event, but showed up after to chat. While Carly was at the party, William didn't want to talk to anyone else. They chatted about music and recent concerts in a corner of the party in a world of their own. After Carly left, William was kicking himself for not asking her out in the moment and rectified that only a couple of hours later.