Eva and Will’s story began with a dating app. At least, that’s where Will thought the story began. Eva's profile was ornamented with pictures of her and earth, her and her cats Hudson and Jerry, and short descriptions, like how her goal for the new year was “to do a pull-up lol” and that she’s obsessed with “birding and botanizing.” These were Will’s first impressions.

Eva’s story began before that. We won’t delve too deeply into the details, other than to say it turns out that Eva’s friends’ mom was friends with Will’s mom, and Eva’s friends’ mom alluded to Will’s existence in a way that provoked Eva to search for Will’s company (something along the lines of: “she has a single, very handsome son”). The search included a coffee date with Will’s mom, which Will knew about without knowing at first that Eva was the “sweet young woman” his mom had mentioned at some point or another. It also included the creation of an aforementioned Hinge profile. A wonderful digital encounter that struck Will as happenstance was, in fact, sought.

Their first impressions of each other centered around authors and books—Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Steinbeck, Marilynne Robinson, Herman Melville. They went on a first date and conversed about the spiritual reality of being over beer and nachos. Continuing a time-honored Roos tradition, three and a half months later Eva and Will moved in together.

There’s more to the story—books, cats, walks, birds, plants, continual discoveries and rediscoveries of what love means and is. They look forward to a lifetime of similar stuff.

“I Did Think, Let’s Go About This Slowly,” by Mary Oliver

I did think, let’s go about this slowly.

This is important, this should take

some really deep thought. We should take

small thoughtful steps.

But, bless us, we didn’t.