Anne and John met while attending New York
University, where the powers that be had
placed them next door to each other in
their downtown Manhattan building.
Thus, chance meetings in the hallway
were common, and John wasted no
opportunity to chat up his cute new
neighbor. Being a lowly sophomore,
and knowing John to be a cocky senior,
Anne assumed that his apparent interest in
in her could not be genuine, so she frequently
found excuses to cut their conversations short. After
more than a month of enduring such cold-shouldering, John had all but given up on winning Anne’s affections. It was then that a good friend suggested to Anne that John’s attention may have, in fact, been in earnest. This possibility had not occurred to her, and she began to feel remorseful for the way she had discounted this nice boy.
Enter the pie! One October day, Anne and another friend, who had in some manner procured a large bag of orchard apples, decided to try their hands at baking an apple pie from scratch, Crisco-can-recipe crust and all. After only a few phone calls to each of their mothers, they ended up with quite an impressive specimen. Later that evening, Anne and John bumped into each other in the hallway yet again, but, for the first time, John strode coolly by without so much as a pleasantry. Determined to make amends for her many instances of disregard, Anne approached him instead: “Hey, do you like apple pie?” He replied that he did, so Anne invited him over to try a piece. He said yes. It must have been delicious, because John asked Anne for a real and proper first date later that week.
Fast forward a mere eight years to November 2009. After following each other to Providence, to Chicago, and back to downtown Manhattan, Anne and John found themselves settled in Brooklyn. On a very lazy, run-of-the-mill Saturday morning, Anne was struggling to wake up when John suddenly appeared with a beautifully crafted breakfast-in-bed. Anne was pretty pumped about the walnut and whipped cream-topped pumpkin pancakes, but it turned out that he had brought her something even more remarkable. As he explained to Anne that an ordinary Saturday morning at home with her was just as wonderful as any trip to a fancy restaurant or special holiday, John pulled out a lovely, lovely ring.
She said yes.
