The date was August 20, 2016, and J. Cole was set to play an orientation show for all the bright and shiny new students arriving to the University of Virginia. One J. Cole fan in the class was inviting people over for a pregame ahead of the concert, and since Nick was attending as well, he made his way over to the party. Sarah had no intention of going to the concert, but viewing the pregame as a very low effort opportunity to make some friends at an apartment across the parking lot from hers, also decided to stop by.

In true fashion for each of their personalities, Nick entered the party and struck up a conversation with some new classmates. Sarah avoided speaking to new people altogether and went to the dark kitchen to open her bottle of wine. Enter Chris Macomber, a person who immediately called out this odd behavior but revealed the fact that they were both in Section B! And what do you know, there was someone else at the party from Section B. NICK STYLES. A Law Class of ’19 Facebook celebrity and the closest thing Sarah had ever seen to a Vineyard Vines ad in real life.

Chris yelled across the room to him, “Nick, this is Sarah! She’s in Section B too!” Sarah smiled, so excited to meet and have a conversation with THE Nick Styles. But alas, Nick looked up, raised one hand in a half-hearted hello, AND IMMEDIATELY LOOKED AWAY. As many of you readers already know, there is a reason Sarah is the one who must tell this story of the first time she and Nick met. Much later on, Sarah found out that Nick has no memory of this first time they met.

Skip a few weeks down the road, when Nick is now a de facto social chair of Section B and hosting people at his apartment before weekly Thursday night bar reviews. Many attended, but Sarah was the only one who consistently showed up earlier than anyone else. Her excuse was that she lived alone and just wanted to hang out, but the truth was that she was developing a bit of a crush on her friend Nick. The two became closer friends throughout the semester, and as their second semester of 1L kicked off, Nick and Sarah began to realize that perhaps they shouldn’t be just friends. They officially decided to take a chance on one another in February 2017, and they’ve spent the past five years never regretting that decision.

Nick and Sarah moved in together for the first time while summer associates in DC in 2018, and having found the two-month trial period to be a success, moved in together in Charlottesville for their last year of law school. They somehow survived studying for the bar together in the summer of 2019, and they moved back to DC to their current home in August of that year.

In the summer of 2020, after three years of closing down The Virginian, peel and eat shrimp buckets, and outdoor concerts, Nick started making regular trips to Georgetown that Sarah (very reasonably) believed were spent looking at clothes and sunglasses. Little did she know he was really taking on the role of the second most particular customer with whom one saleswoman at a jewelry store has ever worked (yes, she told him that). All Nick’s planning paid off, however, when he and Sarah traveled back to Charlottesville in November 2020 for a winery weekend getaway. The two went to Brent Manor, the vineyard they always have considered “their spot” from law school, and Nick created the moment below. Sarah said yes! And this time, Nick remembered.