Friends first.
Then, apparently, forever.

Friendship, slowly rerouted

By November and December of 2022, the friendship had a pretty obvious problem: they liked each other. Turned out they also shared a genuine passion for good food, travel, and a scary number of the same interests - the kind of overlap that's hard to explain away as "just friends" for very long.

Their first date was at Legends Eatery, an Italian spot tucked into an old Pittsburgh neighborhood - chosen specifically for being far enough from campus that no classmates would spot them, just in case it didn't work out. It worked out.

They spent the rest of grad school together, which mostly just meant the restaurant list and the trip-planning got a lot more serious. Paul also started telling more jokes, which Caitlin will insist she never asked for and has never once fully approved of. She puts up with him anyway - usually right after he gets one more laugh out of her than she meant to give.

DC, and a full house

After graduation, Caitlin and Paul both landed jobs in the DC area - a plot twist neither of them fully planned, but a very good excuse to move in together. Susie the cat joined the household first.

About a year later came Kahlua the dog, at which point the apartment officially reached capacity and Paul's jokes officially had two more captive, non-consenting audience members. Susie, for her part, has already picked out a sombrero for the occasion - neither cat nor dog is invited to Mexico City, but the enthusiasm is noted.