The year was 2013 and the sounds of Avicii were sweeping the land. Argo had just won Best Picture. The Baltimore Ravens had just won their second Super Bowl in glorious fashion, beating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 (despite a blackout in the stadium conspicuously delaying the game). Like any good love story, this one began on a cold winter's night in New York's East Village. Sean was watching basketball and was tired of waiting for his roommates to finish pregaming. Nikita was looking for somewhere to continue the festivities after a boozy brunch with her girls. As fate would have it, the two of them would decide to spend their evening at a high end establishment known as The13th Step.
The 13th Step is known for being packed at 4am and hosting the finest Dollar Beer Tuesday's in all of NYC, the city that truly never sleeps. Sean and his NYU friends went there so much that they were basically greeted like Norm from Cheers every time they stepped inside. And so it went on that fateful night, Sean posted up at his usual spot, not knowing that a striking young girl, singing to Taylor Swift, would wander over to his table and change his life forever.
Sean and Nikita connected immediately. Nikita sipped her beer, smiling as always while Sean belted out some A$AP Rocky to her. As the night wound down, the two of them exchanged numbers and planned a date to go see Argo the next day. Nikita sweetly told her friends she thought she met her "dream boy."
The problem was, their texts would be ignored. Or so they thought. Nikita messaged Sean later that afternoon saying she wasn't sure if she'd be able to make their date and asked to reschedule. She got no response. So she waited a day. Then another. In the meantime, Sean randomly added her on Facebook. "Who adds someone on Facebook but doesn't reply to their text?!," Nikita speculated with her girl friends. But Nikita was using an old Blackberry because she had recently lost her 5th phone of the year (remember, we're barely through February at this point). The following weekend, a friend advised her to restart it (having the same issues), and wouldn't you know it -- Nikita suddenly got a text from Sean. The two met up later that evening and realized none of their messages were going through. They had texted each other all week -- no one was ghosted after all! They laughed at the possibility that they could have never met up again but were both so happy they did.
Hours before Sean met Nikita, he wandered out to the rooftop of his apartment on a beautiful winter day. Something was in the air that he couldn't quite describe. A positive energy. A feeling he couldn't shake. He took a picture of the Empire State Building and captioned it "a beautiful afternoon in Manhattan." Nikita even today has this picture from 2/17/2013 framed in their home which Sean gifted her on their 6-month anniversary.
Now over 8 years later, from New York City, to moving to Los Angeles together in 2015, to travels all over the world including Japan, Germany, and Lund, Sweden, the spot where Sean would eventually propose outside of Nikita's childhood home, Sean and Nikita's journey has been -- one could say -- a magic carpet ride. And it's only getting started.