I’ll never forget my first date with my partner. He and I were supposed to be meeting at one of the most popular restaurants in the city. The restaurant was in a new hotel that had prices so high, only the most elite could stay there. I was shocked at the opulence of the hotel, and worried about how much it was going to cost in the restaurant. The restaurant was owned by a big named Michelin star chef, and I knew it was going to be pricey. When my partner showed up, I told him that we were going to need to go somewhere else. He looked down and asked if he wasn’t dressed properly, and I told him it had nothing to do with him. I had already walked into the lobby of the restaurant, and it was so hot that I could barely breathe. The staff at the hotel lobby told us that the restaurant was closed because they were having problems with her HVAC system. I wondered why they had even opened the hotel and the restaurant, if there were HVAC problems, but that wasn’t my business. My business at this point was to decide where my partner and I should go on our first date. Instead of going to the swanky hotel with a five star chef, we ended up going to a street vendor. He said on the corner eating tacos, burritos, and nachos, and chatting for the next three hours. The lack of proper HVAC didn’t ruin our first date, but being able to laugh about it had drawn off closer. What started out as a first date, has now ended up being a lifetime partnership