Nicko Acks and Eva Decker.
We met through mutual friend, Bill McHale, (an alum of Loyola College and also of UMBC.) Our best guess is that we first met the day Bill moved into his house in Silver Spring in November of 2000. Although it may have been in earlier given Bill's penchant for bringing friends along for the weekly Friday night massacres in the smoke filled halls of the Satyr Hill Cue Club. We saw each other sporadically over the years at various get togethers at Bill's place. Finally in the spring of 2003 inspiration struck. The germ of an idea that maybe there might be something more than friendship between us, all because I am a notoriously messy eater and Nicko automatically reached over and wiped barbecue sauce off of my cheek. This one act of tenderness sealed our fate. There was much angst and drama on my part, with Bill unhappily playing the nightly game of "do you really think he likes me?" In May of 2003 I convinced Nicko that they should see the premiere of the second Matrix film at the Historic Senator Theatre. It was, after at least 3 years, the very first time the two of us had ever been alone together. I went home that night comforted by the fact that we really did have things in common and much to talk about, the unabashed belching waiter at the restaurant where they had dinner before the movie, being worth much conversation. I had never been certain of that fact before because of our very different backgrounds and Nicko's relative shyness. Less than 2 months after our outing to the Senator it finally happened, we held hands. That was July 12, 2003. It didn't take long after that for us to realize that not only had we discovered something beyond friendship, we had found true love. We became engaged on February 13, 2004 (or March 13th if you ask Nicko-that's what he told Father Ward).