Julian and Erica met in New York over a weekend in February of 2020. At the time, Erica was a 3rd year Physician Assistant student in Queens and Julian a 1st year Radiology resident in Manhattan. Julian’s brother, Jalen, and his fiancée at the time, Lauren, were visiting Manhattan for the weekend and decided to bring along a special guest, a mystery woman named Erica. What seemed like a random visit that weekend was actually not random at all, but one years in the making.

Lauren was not just Jalen’s fiancée, but also Erica’s childhood best friend. They were such close friends, in fact, that they occasionally joked about how fun it would be to marry two brothers and become sisters-in-law. Erica had heard about Julian years prior while he was in medical school in Las Vegas, but never expected them to meet. Even after discovering he was moving to New York City, it still didn't seem possible. They both had arduous career paths, demanding work schedules, and lived an hour subway ride apart in a city full of 18 million people. One Friday evening, however, Erica made the long subway ride to Manhattan and finally met the man she had heard so much about.

Following a long call shift, Julian waited for Jalen and Lauren to arrive at his apartment. It came as quite a surprise when not just Jalen and Lauren walked into the apartment, but Erica as well. While Erica may have heard quite a bit about Julian, the opposite was not true. Neither Jalen nor Lauren had even mentioned they had a friend named Erica, and they certainly didn’t say she would be visiting that weekend. Sporting pale blue scrubs and looking quite disheveled after a long call shift, Julian was quite embarrassed by his less than stellar appearance when being introduced to Erica for the first time.

Nonetheless, the introduction was a huge success. The conversation flowed effortlessly, laughter was plentiful, and it seemed as if Erica and Lauren’s dream of becoming sisters was more like a premonition. It couldn’t be that easy, though. In the blink of an eye the world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The vibrant city that Erica and Julian should have been able to explore with one another found itself under a blanket of uncertainty and caution. Lockdowns were imposed, and life as everyone knew it changed overnight.

Undeterred by the challenges, Julian and Erica embarked on a journey of love in the time of lockdown. Dinner dates amidst the enchanting lights of the city had turned into late night pizza deliveries, drinking games to the ever-entertaining White House Coronavirus Task Force Meetings, and binging 7 seasons of “The League” in the matter of a week. The city that once thrived on energy and movement now echoed with an eerie stillness, but Julian and Erica’s connection only grew stronger. The isolation of the pandemic became the cocoon in which their relationship metamorphosed into what it is today.

As the world slowly began to adapt to the new normal, Julian and Erica finally had the chance to travel, dine out, and ultimately engage in a more traditional dating scene. The city, which had witnessed their initial meeting and the lockdown love adventure, was now free to let them explore its expansive playground. Almost four years later, Julian proposed at the Terrace in Madison, and a far fetched dream of two best friends had culminated in an unexpected love story.