East... West... directions that cannot meet, one just behind the other but a distance insurmountable. A choice of one or the other.

Unless there are two of you, as there is with Tori & Joe, then that distance isn't so far. In fact, it becomes quite measurable. You may do so in feet, yards, or in some foreign nonsense like a centimeter. However, Joe & Tori like to describe the distance between their beginnings as the width of 1 Chub Lake, because that is exactly what it was.

Now, if you know how near that is, you may scoff and think their meeting and relationship inevitable. Destined to occur, bound to happen, fated. But the width of one Chub Lake isn't always as easy to cross as one may think. An early attempt by Joe to so nearly ended in disaster, after all.

Thus, the friendship between the two didn't truly begin until high school, where a hint of their future relationship was exposed through prom. A prom filled with the trademark awkward dances and conversation the two are so good at. A shyness that undoubtedly aided the six year gap to an actual relationship. It may have been just that, or perhaps other relationships interceded... or maybe the width of one Chub Lake became the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean... but we're not looking to cast shade in either direction.

It wasn't until 2019 that the distance of 1 Chub Lake was truly crossed and the shyness set aside... sorta... at a lakeside night fire - which soon became a dawn fire - as the two caught up on their lives and years spent on opposite shores. The fires and late nights multiplied, as did the love between them, and soon they fell into step. Awkward, shy, nervous steps... but it wouldn't be them otherwise.

And as we all know, it's good to put a new relationship to a harsh test of fortitude right at the beginning. By sticking a global pandemic and the diameter of the planet between them, they sought to test the newly found bond. Okay... now we might be throwing shade in one direction.

They passed that test, and one year has become five, filled with new careers, homes, pets, and travels. One such trip found Joe & Tori at the well of San Gimignano at midnight, promising to commit to each other, to marry, to bridge the gap of one Chub Lake.

....And sure, maybe one of them had to spend 45 minutes locked in the bathroom before that promise, but we never said the width of one Chub Lake is crossed without its hiccoughs. We just know it's worth it.