Upon his arrival in New York from the midwest, Josh became an usher at the New Amsterdam Theater, which was at the time home to The Lion King.  Each week, he would encounter thousands of people as he took their tickets, handed them programs, and showed them to their seats. In the crush of New Yorkers and tourists alike rushing to get to their seats before the massive elephant and giraffe puppets began their procession down the aisles for the show’s opening number, few if any of those faces made an indelible impression on Josh, and the likelihood that he would ever lay eyes on any of them again was nil. Then one day, Ron walked in. 

 

When he sauntered in, Ron caught Josh’s eye as he noticed that this cute guy seemed to know all of the other ushers--just, as he would come to learn, Ron seemed to know most of the people walking along Manhattan’s sidewalks everywhere he went. Ron approached Josh and introduced himself before asking if Josh would radio the floor manager. When the floor manager arrived, Josh looked on as these two former coworkers--he had figured out that Ron was a former New Amsterdam usher--shared a warm embrace. While this reunion was a nice moment, Josh gave it little more thought, turning his attention back to the theatergoers. Meanwhile, Ron and his old friend began catching up. That initial introduction had lasted hardly a few minutes, but as it turned out, it was (unbeknownst to either of them) the first moment of a journey that would span years.

 

Enter Mark Zuckerberg. 

 

Josh eventually left his job at the New Amsterdam to give his design career his full attention. Although he had not seen or heard from Ron since that first meeting, Mark Zuckerberg had been hard at work for several years launching Facebook, which would once again bring each into the other’s orbit. When he joined Facebook, Josh began connecting with everyone and anyone who had worked at the New Amsterdam Theater. Luckily for Josh, Ron, despite his technical savvy, had not yet figured out how to filter other Facebook users from seeing his page, and so he was among the recipients of Josh’s early friend requests. When Ron saw the request, he thought, “Who IS this guy?” before noticing that Josh was connected with all of Ron’s New Amsterdam connections. “Do I know him?” he thought. “Well,” he said to himself, “...he is cute,” and he accepted the friend request and began combing through Josh’s online photos. 

 

Apart from the occasional updates they would see on their respective Facebook newsfeeds, the two went about their lives without really knowing each other and still having never met apart from that first encounter at the New Amsterdam -- until Ron bumped into someone he knew on the sidewalk in Hell’s Kitchen on a warm spring evening in March 2012. 

 

As he was walking up Ninth Avenue, Ron passed by the restaurant Ariba Ariba and spotted his old friend Natalie, a former New Amsterdam coworker, who was on her way to dinner with some friends while visiting New York from her new home in Chicago. Among those friends was Josh, who had also been Natalie’s roommate when she lived in New York. After Ron and Natalie shared a big hug, Natalie began introducing the friends she was with. A few years of Facebook stalking ensured that when Natalie got around to introducing the last of her friends, Ron knew exactly who it was. As Natalie turned to Josh, Ron didn’t miss a beat and said, “Hi Josh, how are you? So nice to see you again.” A second later, Ron gave Josh a big hug. In that moment, they both felt a bit of a spark and the mutual crushing started instantly. Fortunately, they would not have to wait years for their next encounter.

 

They met again the next night when they both attended a reunion of former ushers that Natalie had coordinated prior to returning to Chicago. Josh and Ron spent the evening flirting with another, but both felt that they should keep it cool. They kept it a bit too cool, though, as they never exchanged phone numbers before parting ways that night. 

 

A few days later, Josh travelled to Charlotte to visit friends, where he found himself continually distracted by thoughts of Ron. He decided to send Ron his phone number via Facebook Messenger and received a near instant response from Ron. Not long after, the two met for a drink in Hell’s Kitchen, and so began, the romance that had been brewing for so long.

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After about two years, they decided to take a breather and broke off their romantic relationship. The break lasted nine months, but it seemed in many ways to be a “break-up” in name only. Daily phone conversations were common throughout the period, and they realized that they were still crazy about each other and felt a bit at sea being apart. When they finally reunited, it was not long before they decided to move in together. 

 

That first meeting at the New Amsterdam was over a decade ago. And it’s been more than six years since they shared that first hug on Ninth Avenue. In November 2017, Josh finally asked Ron to marry him, and Ron said yes!

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[By Dan Boulos, Best Man]