We met in the fall of 2019 at a friend's housewarming party. James made a joke about the guacamole that was objectively terrible, but Emma laughed anyway, and that was that. Our first real date was at a tiny ramen shop downtown where we talked for three hours and closed the place out.

A year of long walks, spontaneous road trips, and figuring out whose apartment had the better couch turned into moving in together, adopting a very opinionated cat named Olive, and building a life that feels easy in the best way.

James proposed on a quiet Tuesday morning in April, on the back porch with coffee in hand and Olive supervising from the windowsill. No elaborate plan, just the right words at the right time. Emma said yes before he finished the sentence.