We won’t lie - our first few encounters weren’t about getting to know each other. But when Jack learned where Peter lived, he couldn’t help but feel something more was in store - Peter living on Idaho Avenue in Northwest Washington, DC, and Jack being from Idaho.

But it soon became clear to both of us that there was more between us, and on a warm and wet DC late-spring day, we spent an entire day together. First stealing coffee from an au-ban-pan (we tried to pay, but no one would take our money!) to closing down the Big Hunt in DC - having talked more than drank, though there was plenty of that, it was clear that we had found each other’s best friends.

Jack left Peter to go galavanting in Africa for a month a day after this spectacular revelation, and Peter proceeded to send Jack nearly daily texts that Jack, being in one of the most remote places on earth, did not see until a layover in Brussels. It was clear that there was something special about the bond they had forged just a month earlier.

Peter left Idaho Ave for the actual state later that summer and proceeded to consume a number of Long Island Ice Teas that would be embarrassing now, but we were still in college, so it was cool. Jack’s parents fell in love with this hot mess from California, and told him repeatedly 1) they liked Peter more than previous exes and 2) they liked Peter more than Jack. It was also then that Peter said I love you to Jack, and Jack sat on that for the rest of the trip, only returning the favor the last night under the Idaho stars.

We will gloss over Peter’s trip back home after that, but suffice it to say while it was a bit of a surprise to his parents, no love was lost.

Their senior year in college involved frequent trips between DC and Roanoke, a spring break Peter does not resent Jack for at all, and the beginning of a trend where Jack wins at mini golf and Peter wins at chess. When they moved to the Bay Area (both of them hated DC’s humidity and its culture), Peter would visit Jack every weekend in the most stereotypical Bay Area room (it was a dining room with nothing other than a mattress on the floor) and spoil him with lavish dinners out while Jack survived as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Jack still lets Peter spoil him - truly a saint.

Peter gives Jack the confidence to be himself, to stand up for himself, and to better himself. He is at all times Jack’s best friend and confident. Jack clearly makes Peter happy, tolerating his eccentricities, and is the person Peter knows he can spend the rest of a fabulous life together.

Registry