It was a dark and stormy night in Chicago, late 2016. Tiana had just got off the red line train and was ready to make the dash four blocks over to the sushi bar on Elm and State streets. Given her aversion to swimming and really all things water, this would be no pleasant sprint. Little did she know, her future husband would be waiting on the other side of that precipitation-filled gallop. Fittingly enough, said husband wouldn't know it either. Tiana entered the still dripping wet doors of RA Sushi, easily one of Chicago's most mediocre Japanese restaurants. The first thing she noticed was the lack of any male presence. It was as if no one expected a spider to need to be killed or a toilet to need cleaning. "Surely I won't find love here!" Tiana thought. Unbeknownst to her, the only heterosexual man over 5'3" without a criminal record in the joint was about to change her life forever. This was no ordinary man. This was a man from the far away land known as Downers Grove, Illinois. A city known for it's massive influence on the entertainment world including Denise Richards, and the "Macho Man" Randy Savage (neé Poffo). On this very night, Tiana would meet the 3rd most famous entertainer from that very place. Michael K. Benning didn't notice Tiana at first. As the only competent bartender employed by the Benihana corporation, he took pride in making sure each cocktail was just a little light on the booze so as to encourage the patrons to order more and hence jack up the price of the bill (and subsequently his tips). When Tiana's eyes finally met Michael's, she froze. A more handsome man couldn't have been created if Zeus, Jesus, and Beyoncé had created him themselves. All she could muster up through the shock and awe was... "Is the manager here?" Michael didn't reply, but merely gave a dismissive head nod towards the curtain in the back of the restaurant. Tiana, somewhat taken a back, moved the intended way. She would come to meet the rest of the team while still wondering about the soy sauce-stained paramour who scored cucumber slices with the greatest of ease. The rest of the shift played out in uneventful fashion. Coincidentally, so did the food service careers of both Michael and Tiana. As fate would have it, RA Sushi wasn't long for this world. A mere 5 weeks after Michael quit, the restaurant closed. Day after day, customers would ask about the light haired, green-eyed mixologist whose void left the Applebee's of Sushi without any sort of identity save for a painting of a fake (and not even Asian) female swordsmaster on the wall. Eventually corporate couldn't handle the embarrassment anymore; in a fit of rage the bar would shut down for good. Rumors began spreading that Michael had gone on the road with Elton John. Others said it was Bruno Mars. But the truth is alway more complicated than the lie. Michael began his life of a figurative rolling stone, creating music with fellow vagabonds in whichever drinking hole or retirement home would have him. Tiana, stayed in the industry but not for long. She too knew she was meant for better things. Fast forward nearly six years: Michael was back from a humanitarian expedition in the Congo when he decided to take a crack at this "modern dating" thing the kids were talking about. Apparently women everywhere were breaking the rules we learned as 3rd graders: Don't talk to strangers, and be careful who you converse with online. On this fateful day in July 2022, Michael would stumble upon a photo of brown-eyed beauty with a too-tight red T-shirt and cowboy boots with the brightest smile he'd ever seen. But this wasn't just any beauty, he remembered. This was the very girl he had spent virtually no time with and rarely spoke to all those years ago. But still, the memory of her lingered like midwestern skunk that had been flattened by a 1986 Toyota Corolla. Michael took his chance: Tiana ignored him. Two weeks later, she changed her mind. It would be love at last