It’s funny how sometimes the best things in life come from doing something bad. From the teenage thrill of sneaking out past curfew, to that feeling of the wind in your fingertips as you push that speedometer just a little bit further, sometimes you have to break the rules to experience what life is all about. In this case, Ben met Raven by breaking the golden rule of hospitality; never try to hit on someone in the service industry. While walking through the checkout line at the liquor store, Ben let the laws of modern flirtation take a back seat as he politely interrupted Raven at her day job. Anyone who really knows Ben is aware that he is secretly a romantic, perhaps to a fault, and so he had always dreamt of meeting his soulmate in an unplanned, accidental and organic way, just like in the movies. However, unlike the theatre, real life has a way of humbling you when it comes to love, and it can be anything but easy. Within their first few months together they found themselves navigating the muddled waters of a struggling family business, an impending pandemic and a lockdown. Out of passion, struggle, as well as necessity they decided to get off of their mattress in the basement and move in together.

Over five years have passed since that day in the liquor store, and even though this world did its best to chew them up and spit them out, they found happiness in one another. If you ask Raven what her favourite part about Ben is, she would probably say his sense of humour, and Ben would agree because he laughs at all his own jokes. But if you ask Ben what his favourite thing about Raven is, it would be the way that she calms his restless soul. From their strolls on the beach in Collingwood to the frigid walkabouts in the Canadian Arctic, they have both found someone to navigate this crazy, stupid, messed up world with, and when one falters, stumbles or falls, the other will help them carry on.