Andrei and I met at a "horsewarming party" (or at least that was what the Facebook event was called). One of my best friends from Sarah Lawrence was moving in with her boyfriend, Andrei's friend from his youth. They threw a housewarming party in Lefferts Garden. It was a blistering hot day in the dead of summer, and earlier that day I helped a friend move a used air conditioner (read: heavy) from a tiny East Village apartment to her apartment in Bushwick. I could feel a "throat thing" coming on and was really tired, but mustered up the energy to go to the party. I laid on the couch for the first hour I was there when three boys walked in and the music stopped and everyone looked at them in 20 seconds of silence. Not really, but I did become upright embarrassingly fast once I spotted him: Andrei, the man I was going to marry. I accidentally exclaimed out loud, "WHO IS THAT?" He and is friends immediately went to the fire escape because it was unbearably sweaty inside and I followed them. I introduced myself immediately. I ultimately had to leave the party early before having the proper chance to declare my desire to marry him one day or at least get in a kiss. But I told all of my friends before I left—middle school style—to "tell that boy I like him." And they did!