If you are here, on this website, reading this little anecdote, you all know how it ended. But you also know that it wasn’t just it. There was Covid-19, the shutdown in New York and the concern for their respective beloved ones who were going through harsh lockdowns in Europe, the sadness of a graduation ceremony canceled, and not much for themselves, but for those who had made sacrifices and had forgone their own wishes to allow them to study in the United States, the difficulties in finding – and the disappointment in not finding – a job in New York after graduation in 2020. And even once back in Europe, in two different cities, there were Covid-waves, flights cancelled, forced quarantines, paperwork to go through to see each other even for 36 hours, and denied boardings.
That very day indeed, when Pierre wasn’t allowed to board on a flight from Paris to London based on the reason that «for both the French and the UK Government, they were nothing,» that very day, at Orly airport in Paris, Pierre in front of his very big burger of sorrows, and Teresa in front of her (usual) salad, they looked at each other and said: «This cannot happen again; this will never happen again.»
Two months after, meeting in the London Heathrow airport directly to catch an early flight to New York, both with very few hours of sleep and between emails, prospectus filing deadlines and closings, they gathered a few friends in Central Park and sealed their union, forever. This was certainly not the end of the hurdles, as they had almost one more year to go — Teresa living in London and Pierre living in Paris — before they could get really reunited; but it definitely was the first step towards their life together, which they now enjoy every day in New York, in the city where all began, under the same roof, walking together back home on Lexington Avenue, laying down on the same couch at night after work, and waking up looking at each other every morning.