In the year of our Lord, 2009, a strikingly handsome young man, and a charming, beautiful young lady worked together at a Starbucks in Southampton, Pennsylvania. After some time, these two would go their separate ways—but not forever.

Also, Bob and Maria were there. They also worked at that Starbucks. This story is about them.

After parting, they went on to live different lives. While Maria was galavanting around the United Kingdom, studying at the prestigious London School of Economics (which, contrary to popular belief, is not associated with Temple University), Bob was galavanting around home, spending his time going to school, working, and—well, galavanting. There's lots of galavanting in this story.

Years would pass, but, eventually luck—or, perhaps, fate—would intervene. During the Great Pandemic of 2020, Bob and Maria had both put themselves on Tinder. When Maria's profile showed up on Bob's screen, he found himself in a pickle: does he swipe left and miss out on a possible connection with someone from his past, or does he swipe right and put himself out there, with the possibility of being rejected? Obviously, he went right. And did right, too.

From there, it was a whirlwind romance. They fell in love (although one of them—not going to name Bob's name—took a bit longer to admit his feelings), knowing they were meant for one another. Through the ups and downs, they have stuck by each other, embracing and galavanting (see?) through life, happy as clams. And now, they are getting ready to embark on the next stage of their lives, together, happily in love.

And legally in love, once the paperwork is signed.

Sometime in the early Obama days, Maria was doubling as high school student and Starbucks barista, when she met a goofy older boy with a lot of hair (Maria also had a lot of hair), called Bobert. At the time, Maria was busy being quite “extra” (see photo) and Bob was busy *thinking* he was a ladies’ man (see photo). One day, Maria came into Southampton Starbucks to find her coworkers gathered around a letter - a breakup letter - which Bobert had written to the store announcing his departure as a barista (foreshadowing?). Bobert was gone. But not forever.

Many years later, Maria was on Tinder (when she probably could have just been studying for her last year of law school) and came across little old Bobert from Southampton Starbucks. “Oh good, someone I’ve met before and know isn’t a serial killer,” Maria thought, and proceeded to swipe right. While Maria had *many* other suitors at the time, she knew deep down from their first conversation that she and Bob were the same kind of weird and that it was all over; that she would ultimately spend the rest of her life with this farting, dad joke-making man, and there was nothing she could do about it. Maria loved Bob.

Bob also loved Maria, and he told her so in German early in their relationship. Bob then spent the next year or so pretending like Maria didn’t know how to Google the words “ich liebe dich” and proceeded to be a bit of a “dich” until he finally admitted how hopelessly in love with Maria he was.

From then on, for every time Maria rolled her eyes at Bob, there were twice as many times when he had her doubled over in laughter. It melts her heart to see how much her dogs have come to love him, and she’s honored to have become a cat mom to Hades and Hermes. Maria loves Bob for who he is, so much so that she’s even given up on trying to regulate his (truly bizarre) stream of consciousness Facebook posts.

They are so excited to start this next chapter, and thankful to the friends and family who have been there for them along the way.