It was the end of December 2018. Jake was visiting his friend in Los Angeles, who was a close college friend of Edward's. Jake & Edward had always heard of each other, but never actually met. Finally being in the same city at the same time, their mutual friend and excited matchmaker (shoutout to Jackie Merry) made plans for them to go out to West Hollywood that night with a small group of pals. So on December 30th, 2018, all attending parties met up at the most *romantic* place in all of Los Angeles: The Abbey. Lights were strobing, music was thwomping, and go-gos were dancing. Edward & Jake immediately hit it off. Jake remembers exactly where he was when Edward first walked into the bar. Edward doesn't remember what he would have said when he first met Jake, but it must have been something hilarious, obviously. The magical vibes carried on through the rest of the bar-hopping-filled night. Long Island iced teas were spilled, dancing was had, and cowboy go-gos were tipped many dollars. At the end of the evening, Jake & Edward said their farewells. Edward invited Jake to his New Year's Eve celebration the next night, but Jake wasn't sure he could make it because he had tickets for a NYE party. But Jake did. Even after ringing in the new year at a bar on the other side of the city, a determined Jake dragged his friends up to the valley to stop by Edward's gathering at 1am. The two of them were so glad they got to see each other one more time before Jake went back to Minnesota. They cheers'd to the new year with mimosa jello shots and dino chicken nuggets! But Jake couldn't depart LA without leaving his mark. Could the two of them have just traded phone numbers to keep in touch? No, that's boring. Picking up that Edward was on Tinder, Jake spent his first day of 2019 swiping through every dude on the dating app in LA until he found Edward to match with.

Jake & Edward were a match made in [Tinder] heaven. Tinder messages turned into Instagram messages, and the two found a routine of keeping in touch for months: Jake would slide into Edward's DMs. They'd talk for a few days. The conversation would fizzle out. It was like clockwork, and everyone in their lives was invested. Jake's friends knew all about Edward, and Edward's friends knew about his "Minnesota Boy". Jake openly expressed wanting to make the long distance work, but Edward said he would *never* be in a long distance relationship. They continued to talk on and off until September 2019. Edward was visiting Chicago, and Jake offered to drive down from Minnesota to see him. Edward promptly ghosted him... But Edward immediately realized he messed up when the messages from Jake stopped coming. Missing his "Minnesota Boy", Edward made an attempt to reach out to Jake in December 2019. Jake did not answer...

2020 soon came, and along with it, a global pandemic. Locked in their little boxes, Jake & Edward's lives changed forever when Dua Lipa dropped her newest masterpiece: Future Nostalgia. On his Instagram, Edward shared that he was loving the song, Levitating. And Jake replied to it. The two of them immediately picked up where they had left off, except this time the conversation never fizzled out. After two weeks of nonstop messaging, they scheduled their first date: a virtual video call on April 13th, 2020. Without planning on it, the video call lasted *8 hours*, with neither Jake or Edward wanting the conversation to end. The video dates became a regular occurrence (every Monday and Thursday night) for the next two months. Edward decided to temporarily move back to Illinois in the summer of 2020. What was once a 28 hour drive between them was now only 6 hours. This time when Jake suggested driving down to Illinois to see him, Edward replied. This marked the "official" beginning to their relationship, which consisted of: Edward living part time in Minnesota & Illinois, Jake regularly driving back and forth between Minnesota & Illinois, and the two of them continuing to have video dates when they were apart. After a year of making the long distance work in the Midwest, Jake & Edward moved to Los Angeles together.