Anthony and Rolando met after Anthony smartly and confidently strolled into the Case Manager's office at Rolando's Hospital on October 21, 2020 to give a clinical update to Rolando’s co-worker. Anthony was wearing freshly pressed blue pants, shiny black shoes, and a crisp, white button up shirt. Rolando remembers distinctly because he was drowning in paper, overwhelmed at his new job, and hungry because he had forgotten lunch. Anthony had brought cupcakes with his update, like a good Marketer, and Rolando could not have been more grateful. Rolando had just moved to Denver for a new Nursing position from Chicago in the height of the pandemic because he was insane, and Anthony had recently moved from Houston not even a year prior. They were fully masked to avoid the plague, but little did they know they would each succumb to love not even a year later. Some time would pass before they would really connect outside of their professional relationship, but oddly enough, they found out later that each of them lingered in the other’s mind’s eye after every subsequent meeting over the course of the next year. A more personal connection would not occur until Friday, July 30, 2021 when Rolando finally messaged Anthony for the first time with romantic intentions unbeknownst, of course, to Anthony initially. Anthony, given the randomness of this initial message, assumed a strictly business exchange, but Rolando says he reached out knowing that he wanted only Anthony. As the weekend unfolded, the messages didn’t stop. Deeper and deeper they dove into each other’s psyches with a facility and an unassuming intimacy that surprised them both. No pictures were exchanged until Rolando flirted his way into getting one from Anthony. They had never seen each other’s faces without their masks until that picture and really never in person until their first date. They met in Cherry Creek at SOL Mexican Cocina finally on August 2, 2021, right after work because they were both nervously impatient to meet each other after their weekend exchange. That first date was exactly what a first date should be: innocent and authentic. Many hours passed. They bared their souls, spoke of their pasts, detailed their presents, and hypothesized about a future. There were even a few tears shed. That’s when they knew they were meant to be together. They could see the future in each other’s eyes and the road ahead. A peace that surpassed all understanding descended on the two of them. They had found the other half, the missing puzzle piece, the light in the dark. It really is true...when you know, you know. Since that first date, they have not been apart, and now after three years are ready to commit to one another forever.