...two people moved to the wondrous, exotic land of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. These two people, whom we'll refer to under the pseudonyms "Nich and Caroline" to protect the innocent, moved to this fantastical land to get their PhDs in English at Middle Tennessee State University. As luck would have it, Nich and Caroline sat right next to each other on the very first day of the grad school orientation. Nich looked over at Caroline and said to himself, "Dang" (he meant this in a good way). Caroline looked at Nich's tattoo-covered arm and said, "I'd like to borrow that arm sometime." Nich was very flattered, and the seeds of a big-time crush were planted. That evening, Nich and Caroline joined a crew of colleagues at a local watering hole, again sitting next to each other. Nich ordered a gross pear salad. He ate very little of it, offering the leftovers to Caroline. This was the start of their longtime tradition of Caroline eating all of Nich's food, even the gross bits. The seed of a crush in Nich's heart began to sprout.

Caroline and Nich proceeded to fall in love over the next several months. The rest of their story is yet to be written. Rest assured, their love story is one that involves many more characters than themselves. Their love for one another, and their entire Beings, are what they are because of the people in their lives. That is the true moral of this fairy tale. Did they live happily ever after? It's impossible to know. But they've lived happily until now, and that's a gift for which they are both endlessly grateful and humbled.