At Church Choir 

Bill Scott & Kate Thompson  •  Relationship: 10 years

Kate (nurse practitioner): “I’m a soprano and he’s a bass, so he would look at the top of my head and I would never see him.”
Bill (businessman and retired public servant): After some manipulation] I did end up getting invited to a Thai food party at Kate’s house. Around that time, Kate was offering composting worms to people in the choir, and I signed up. So I had a compost bin on the balcony of my apartment!

On Tinder 

Sarah Briggs & Emma McIlroy •  Relationship: 22 months

Sarah (bartender): “It was always hard for me to meet women in person; it just made more sense for me to use Tinder. It’s definitely a hookup site—I just wanted it to be something else.”
Emma (fashion CEO): “I had been on Tinder for a couple of weeks, and I am not ashamed to admit I did not go on there looking for long-term relationships. I was pretty angry after the date with Sarah because I thought, ‘Oh no, now that I’ve met her, I’m done [dating people]! That’s not how it’s meant to work!”

Through Jason’s Ex-Wife  

Jason Davis & Caitlin Baggott  •  Relationship: Four years 

Jason (graphic designer): Caitlin had come to my home with [my ex-wife] Nancy a couple of times. There was a familiarity with someone I’d just met that you don’t often feel, and a conspiratorial closeness. Her presence was striking. 
Caitlin (foundation director): During the course of our friendship, Nancy came out, and in that process she did say to me, “Jason really deserves to be with someone wonderful,” and gave me that look! [When we went on our first date] I thought, here is a man who’d just had his marriage end and, as far as I could imagine, was a broken husk of a human being. Not trustworthy, not pointed in the right direction, very charming, very sweet, very funny, but definitely trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. I wanted as close to nothing to do with him as possible.

At a Timbers Game 

Adam Neff & Meagan Neff  •  Relationship: Four years 

Meagan (nurse): My friend and I had bought season tickets, and we showed up for the first home game a little late. All of the seats in the 100 level were taken, so my friend and I were up in the 200 level, where no one was standing and no one was cheering. I was pouting a little so my friend went down to look for seats and found the last two next to two guys, Adam and his friend. We all just clicked. 
Adam (government agency admin): As a group we grew closer, but it took through the end of the season for us to actually get together. But Meagan was definitely the person I would look for when we were going to games. When we were hanging out before the game, I would be talking with my back to the field waiting for her to appear at the tunnel and start walking down the stairs. 

On the Bus

Kristin Bremer Moore & Steve Moore  •  Relationship: Six years 

Steve (geneticist): I was living across the street from a yoga studio where Kristin practiced. We were both catching the no. 8 at the same bus stop. I hadn’t seen a girl that had caught my eye at a bus stop in a long time. Two weeks later we were at the same stop, and we started chatting. Then we had to get on and stand, and bump into each other. The next day we got to sit down and touched knees—she had naked knees, so that was pretty exciting! 
Kristin (lawyer): The next time, I was actually waiting inside the yoga studio because he wasn’t at the bus stop yet, so I could ensure we rode on the bus together. Then he darted from his house when the bus came and got on. It was like a Dr. Zhivago moment! 

At the Gap

Juan Martinez & Byron Beck  •  Relationship: 20 years

Byron (journalist): I went into the Gap, found a blue linen shirt and decided to try it on in the middle of the store. So I took my shirt off.
Juan (leadership program director): This was in the middle of the sales floor. The clientele were all laughing and pointing. I was one of the managers on duty, so I had to go handle this. I was nervous and scared. I told him where the fitting rooms were. I went back on the register, and he came up to my line to purchase the shirt. So he gets up there, buys it, and then he signs his phone number on the charge slip. 
B: I kept the shirt. We had it at our wedding. I still fit in it, barely. 
J: You should wear it once in a while.
B: It’s not really in style.