...and fall in love. Ok, not quite. It was an IT conference, to be exact, and all of the University of Arizona MIS students were eating lunch together, including Reza and Ashley. It seemed an ordinary moment, but in hindsight it was a noteworthy one. However, Ashley and Reza were dating other people and would rarely speak for the next year despite being students in the same department.

By the time school let out for the summer, Ashley and Reza were both single *wink* *wink*. They began to see more of each other at social gatherings because of a mutual friend, but it all could have ended there when the friend left town for the remainder of the summer. Not to fear! Reza soon asked Ashley to lunch at Kebab King in the Tucson Mall. Just the two of them. Ashley readily accepted. To this day, Reza can't say if he had romantic intentions initially, but whatever the motive, they made plans to see each other again the next day. And then the next, and the next...

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, 2019. Reza had a definitively-romantic plan in motion, cooked up with Tom, Dale, and Thomas. As far as Ashley knew, they were carpooling to the Gaslight's Christmas show. When Ashley and Reza arrived at Tom and Dale's, they were both blindfolded and led to another room for a Christmas surprise. When Ashley took off her blindfold though, it was immediately clear the surprise was only for her; Reza was kneeling in front of her and they were surrounded by candles, flower petals, and balloons. Reza asked Ashley an important question and, hopefully, we needn't tell you what her answer was. <3