How we met
Never date a co-worker. Some companies even have policies against it. I later found out mine did, thankfully it all worked out. You can't help where you meet someone. Well, you can try, but isn't it always in the unexpected moments, in the surprise situations, where someone special catches your eye, that beat out planned dates or Tinder hook-ups? Take hold of those moments, even if you must do so in secret [wink].
So, as you've probably gathered, I met my wife [insert drumroll here] ...at the office. We work in the fashion industry and the companies we worked for, as we'd later do, merged into one. She causally just strolls in one day and pretty much changes my life. Well, maybe it wasn’t as simple as that, I was already dating someone and there was still the stigma of the forbidden fruit that was the hot co-worker. And wow was she a hottie. Still is. But it worked itself out and our flirtatious workdays and secret sangria filled lunches, eventually turned into an official, no longer secret, very real, very sexy relationship.
Fast forward a year, while our companies are going through a nasty break-up (she’s already moved on to bigger and better), we’re discussing moving in together. We move into my apartment. Wanting her to feel the place was as much hers as it was mine, we decided to completely renovate it. The transformation took eight months, turned out better than we imagined, and there wasn't a single time we weren't laughing and enjoying ourselves. Everything in our home reminds us of those moments and it’s still one of the things we love best about it.
We were happy in our apartment. I had been there over a decade, locking in a decent rent payment, a unicorn by New York City standards, and our renovations really brought the place to life. However, something newer and more refined had always been something we both wanted and kept an eye out for. One building in particular came close to perfection for us. It was in our neighborhood, and we passed it often — a new build pretty much erected before our eyes. Purchasing a unit in the building was not yet within our reach and there hadn't been any rentals available. So, living there only existed in our dream realm for quite some time.
One morning while enjoying a boozy brunch at CEBU, my amazingly efficient wife, I had just learned, had set up Street Easy notifications. This newly acquired knowledge was discovered upon seeing my wife's excitement after she was alerted of an available unit in that very building. Were we in the dream realm? Was our brunch too boozy? Neither, but maybe the booze did contribute to our immediate decision to pull the trigger and apply for the apartment. We were approved.