It started during an evening of after-work drinks between Ehiji and Courtney, his classmate from graduate school and Lucia’s coworker. This was after Courtney had tried numerous times to introduce us. She was convinced that we would make a great pair and would do anything to get us in a room together. She had been mentioning this to Lucia as well, but neither of them were interested in being set up by a friend on an awkward ‘blind date’.

On a Friday evening in late November 2018, she had finally managed to get the two of us in the same building at the same time to finally meet. She clearly knew something that we didn't because over the next six hours, the two of us were completely immersed in conversation; talking about everything under the sun and completely forgetting that Courtney and Ehiji’s friend Mike were present at our table. Lucia even forgot she met Mike that night.

That same night we met, we preemptively scheduled a proper first date two weeks later at Tango Sur, an Argentinean Steakhouse. Over the following days, as we talked and exchanged texts, we agreed that two weeks was far too long to wait and saw each other two nights later instead. Despite Ehiji’s busy work-travel schedule, we looked forward to seeing each other every chance we were in the city at the same time. We quickly became each other’s best friend, realizing that there was no one else with whom we would rather spend our time.