This was our first picture together: our second date, February 19, 2018 - two days after our first date, and two weeks after we first met. We were at Bone Up Brewing in Everett. Dan took this.

If you ask Sarah how we met…

Rewind two weeks. February 11th. I had plans for a casual brunch with my friend Amanda, where I was supposed to meet her coworker Shannon. Simple enough. Except I almost bailed—blame it on one too many glasses of wine at Floramo’s the night before. But I powered through, figuring a mimosa was basically medicine.

When we arrived, Shannon dropped a surprise on Amanda: another coworker, Dan, would be joining us. Dan never had Sundays off, but thanks to an injury, he was temporarily unemployed from his job and fully employed in day drinking.

I had every intention of being home early to meal prep with my friend Mayra. Spoiler alert: that did not happen. Brunch casually turned into bar-hopping, and by the second bar, Dan had already sent a picture of me to his friend Marty—some kind of investigative scouting mission. Exhibit A:

By the third bar, fate (or just luck) put me in line right next to Dan. We started talking, and then… we just didn’t stop. At one point, I mentioned my love of margaritas, so naturally, the minute we got inside, Dan made a beeline for the bar and returned with two margaritas—trying to impress me. He then launched into a story about margaritas at his brother’s wedding. I, however, was too busy staring at him to actually hear any of it. To this day, neither of us remembers the story.

Now, at this point, I should have left—it was 6 PM, and my “quick brunch” had turned into the world’s longest day-drink. But against all odds, I still made it to Mayra’s for meal prep. Except instead of helping to chop vegetables, I spent the whole time talking about Dan.

Eventually, I worked up the nerve to friend him on Facebook—only to discover he had already sent me a request and sneakily put his number in my phone. Standing in Mayra’s kitchen on Oakes Street, I made a dramatic declaration: “Should I ask him out? I think I’m going to ask him out.”

So I did. And Dan, ever the traditionalist, replied, “Aren’t I supposed to ask you?”

We planned a date for that Saturday at a tavern in Davis Square. Beforehand, I asked Amanda for the scoop: Was he a good guy? Was this a terrible idea? She reassured me, “I wouldn’t let you go out with him if he wasn’t.”

That Saturday at 7 PM, Dan and I met up. And no one heard from us until after 4 AM.

From that point on, it was game over. We spent every day together that we could, and whenever we were out, our phones were down for hours—because when you find someone who makes time disappear, you don’t waste a second of it.

***

A year later, I moved in with Dan and to his joy, turned his guest bedroom into my personal walk-in closet. A year after that, we got our first pup, Summer, and a couple of years later, her brother Murphy joined our crew.

the proposal:

We had just celebrated our six-year anniversary when I started planning a birthday dinner for Dan and his twin sister, Veronica. Since my dad’s birthday was just a few days later, I figured—why not celebrate altogether? A nice, simple evening. Nothing crazy.

I made a dinner reservation for a Wednesday at 4 PM in Plymouth—which, in hindsight, was a hilariously early time to trick myself into thinking I was the one in charge of the plans.

Dan and I drove down with my parents to meet his parents, Veronica, and Sebastian at the restaurant. The whole time, I was low-key stressing that I hadn’t planned the evening well enough. Did I pick the right place? The right day? Was 4 PM too early? (Yes.)

By the time we finished eating, I was still deep in my overthinking spiral when the server appeared and placed a cake down to my left. Oh, thank God, someone thought to get a birthday cake, I thought. Then I looked closer. The cake said, “Will you marry me?”

And my immediate reaction? Wow, they gave us the wrong cake.

It took me far longer than I’d like to admit to realize what was actually happening. Meanwhile, to my right, Dan was already down on one knee, patiently waiting for me to turn my head and connect the dots. When I finally did, he looked up at me and said,

*“Sarah, will you be my forever friend?”