They met in Downtown Boston, in September 2018. In a stuffy office building on Tremont Street. He knew this cramped and hopeless office would do nothing for his career, but he persisted anyway. A new girl had just started and he liked spending his days with her. She had only just arrived in Boston, fresh from a year in China. Yes, she was very pretty, but she was also the most magnetic person he had ever met. Her smile was the only brightness in that dark place. She appeared in his dreams, smiling at him from rooftops, holding out yellow flowers. And she had excellent taste in shoelaces. He loved her immediately.

He neglected his work responsibilities entirely. His sole motivation for coming to work each day was to spend time with her. He made pitiful attempts to be charming and embarrassed himself constantly. He once fell through the ice on a frozen pond, and she, appropriately, laughed at him. But she did warm to him, and eventually she grew to reciprocate his feelings. There was something cute about how pathetic he was. He had the right opinions about butterflies. Her pets liked him, and he liked them too. He was handsome enough, she supposed. Nothing too striking, but acceptably above average.

She was bold and self-assured. She was the first to make her feelings known. He was over the moon. They moved into a tiny apartment in Boston together and made a very happy little home of it. He grew impossibly attached to her pets - HIS pets now! Years passed. They traveled the world together, climbed mountains, crossed oceans, slept on airport floors, ran marathons. They took up tennis and skiing. They wore sweatpants often and ate many pizzas. Really, there was no question of their future together.

They outgrew their little Boston home and found a new one, in a stone mansion on a hilltop in Beverly. They found a community there, a place to put down roots. A vision of their shared future began to crystalize. He bought a ring, and one day, while on a trip to the center of the Earth, he gave it to her. Her family approved. At least that’s what he hoped.

And now they look ahead! To November, in Salem, MA. When this story will take a great leap forward. It’s a long story with several more decades to come, but we’ve learned enough to guess how this story will go. We can say with confidence for example that there will be several more pets added to the mix. And they will undoubtedly visit Italy again. She will surely beat him in dozens more board games & sports. And they will continue to grow together, laugh at each other's bad jokes, be partners through many more adventures, and love one another with their whole hearts.