Anthony had just moved to LA, and I had lived there my whole life. So there we were, both working retail at a local Petco. He was a cashier, and I was the fish girl. One morning, Anthony looked pretty tired, and I was on my way out the door on a 10 minute break, so I asked him if he wanted anything from the supermarket downstairs. He said no, but I brought him a cup of black coffee with sugar and creamer anyway. I felt bad and knew how it was to be cashiering at 9 a.m. He was surprised when I came back with it, but grateful nonetheless. The funny thing is, Anthony didn’t even like coffee at the time. I guess he told his friends about the encounter, and they encouraged him to keep talking to me, so I became “coffee girl.” We became friends pretty quickly, taking lunches together and some late-night trips to a local taco spot after work. If I was going to Coffee Bean, which was quite often, I’d pick up his newfound favorite: an iced hazelnut latte with oat milk. That’s still his order to this day. The more we talked about movies, music, and tried new food spots, the more we wanted to hang out. It was always friendly—neither one of us was really sure if the other felt something more. We took a walk up the hill from the house he stayed at one night after a movie. The hill overlooked the city of LA, quiet and away from the noisy traffic below. Sitting there, Anthony turned to me and said, "You know I like you, right?" That was in 2019, and well, you know the rest. Safe to say we'll be enjoying our cafecitos together for the rest of our lives.