Like so many of these stories, our story begins in a bar. Not the kind of bar you might be envisioning though. This is the kind of bar that is well lit, and nobody is smoking, and they have vegan options on the menu, and they make a nice Sidecar.

Also like many stories, our story begins with a song. Not the kind of song you might be thinking though. It begins with a slightly off kiltered rendition of a song that started as a novelty song, and then got covered by a novelty band, and then got passed to a French cabaret jazz band who wanted to do a song about far away lands, but didn’t have a violin to cover the gypsy violin parts or a band that did backup vocals.

So when Veronica first saw Patrick, he was sitting next to the stage in the bar singing loudly, with his hands in the air, along with his friend Chris, who was, unbeknownst to either of them, supposed to be saving Veronica a chair. She was tempted to leave, because this loud guy was singing the backup strains to Istanbul at the top of his lungs and sitting in her chair. But she had already decided to come out and her parking spot was way too good. There was a seat next to him at the bar and she could just get him to move when the song was over.

And when she tapped him on the shoulder to move, she saw clear blue eyes that took her by surprise, just for just a moment. They began to chat. They laughed and swapped stories. He bought her a Sidecar. A friend recommended that Patrick include her in his various social gatherings. The friend also informed Patrick that Veronica was not up dating at this time.

So he asked her out to coffee. This did not go well. It wasn’t intended to be a date, but she was sure he was asking her out, and she was very clearly NOT INTERESTED in dating. He explained that he was asking her to grab a cup, dark liquid, white liquid (if she wanted), maybe a little sugar, and some conversation. Once that was settled, she agreed to go group karaoke.

Thus began a pattern, where they would get together in large groups of people and hang out. Many months and they were still just friends. They first shared a dance on the Fourth of July. They shared their love of music, theater and games. They started to share their friends. She started to figure out that she liked Doctor Who.

And after another few fits and starts, including an infamous text where Patrick also got to claim that he was purposely NOT INTERESTED in dating anyone. And that he didn’t want to be anybody’s boyfriend. Almost as soon as he finished typing out that missive, he started to realize just what an amazing woman Veronica is. Finally, just a few weeks later, he decided that he would ask her out. She was also at her wits end and beat him to the punch by about 2 hours, when she asked him out first. In fairness, he already had a first date in mind and was able to suggest it as soon as she asked what he might like to do. So the romantic part of the story opened with sushi and good wine.

Their story is still being written every day. What it has been so far is full of adventures, wonderful times, good wine, board games, music, dancing, and Doctor Who on Sunday evenings. And occasional ramshackle renditions of Istanbul (Not Constantinople)