Tim Malone and Will Conway met in the typical 2020s gay fashion - through a dating app (Hinge). But it almost didn't happen. See, Tim was initially skeptical of the age difference (9 years) and that Will hadn't actually moved to NYC yet. But something about Will intrigued him, and after sitting on Will's message for 2 days, Tim decided to accept the match and respond.

Meanwhile, Will had scheduled 8 online dates for his first week in NYC (easier to land a date in your native language...), with Tim being the last. Discouraged after 7 bad dates, Will almost canceled on Tim, but his new roommates pressured him to go through with it. And after a few Sunday evening beers at 9th Avenue Saloon in Hells Kitchen, they realized they shared many of the same nerdy interests, including the Legend of Zelda video games and the same favorite episode of The West Wing (the Supremes), and decided to see each other again.

Later that night, Will told his roommates that he'd met his future husband. It took Tim a little longer to have that realization, but they quickly became serious, and after surviving two weeks of puppy parenthood together, Tim popped the question with a dinosaur mood ring on August 3, 2024.