Once Upon a Time, at Villanova University, Talia met Ben on the first floor of their dorm, and said "Hi I'm Talia." Ben proceeded to mispronounce her name for the next two years of their lives. But it's fine.

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After that, Talia and Ben saw each other all the time on campus, and would literally stop traffic to ecstatically wave and shout "BEST FRIEND" because it was ironic and they were not friends. In fact, they had one terribly awkward breakfast freshman year, and never ate together again.

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Until sophomore year . . . BAM, they get a notification on their phones: There's a shooting on Villanova's campus. Talia was safely in her apartment watching Friends. She saw the notification and went, "well that's unfortunate," before unpausing the TV. Ben meanwhile was in the zone of danger. He hid in the library with Talia's roommate.

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Don't worry everybody, they survived. The "shooter" was a really loud accappella group that scared a freshman. Acca-awful! (Ben added that one.)

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When they got the "all clear," Talia and her other roommate, Cassandra, went to pick up their roommate from the library. And who did they find there? BEST FRIEND BEN! Well, Talia was in luck: she was wearing her SUPER CUTE lucky yellow dress and blue jean jacket, and newly single Ben was like, "oooh she's cuuuute."

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So then they got lunch, and it was NOT awkward! 45 minutes later, they were walking back to their dorms, and Talia stopped in her tracks, and let her roommates and Ben continue walking. When Ben inquired about this action, Cassandra informed him that Talia was politely cutting the cheese. It was in that moment, he fell completely and utterly in love.

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After that, Ben and Talia became REAL best friends! They went to see Lion King in New York, and went to the Pastorals Formal together. It was only when Ben went to another formal with another girl that Talia was like "bro, what are we doing here?" And he was like, "don't worry, I ruined my chances when I got sick in her Uber."

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So then, one day, when Ben was scrambling to submit a procrastinated paper on time, Talia was like, "hey what are we?" And he was like, "excuse me, may I please finish my paper first?" Then he TEXTED her that he liked her, like a middle school fool. (Ben objects to this, on account that he doesn't remember what actually happened.)

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Since then, their first kiss was to the show Galavant. Talia met his parents when they saw the hit musical, the 80s musical! And then immediately long-distanced from Ben for a year during Covid. Then after that, for three years at law school.

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Ben is the best thing that ever happened to Talia. He laughs at her dark humor. He let her drag him all the way to middle-of-nowhere Georgia for an impromptu vacation when Talia read a romance novel set in Virginia and then heard the song Chicken Fried and somehow related the two. He's listened to the song Fairytale in New York roughly 1,000 times because Talia probably has an obsessive disorder.

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And there's nothing Talia loves more than her Sunday mornings kicked back with Ben, reading a book while he watches sports and pretends to read the Inquirer.

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*Ben would like to add that he actually reads the Inquirer.*

*Talia would like to add that the cartoon section does not count.*