I met him on a Tuesday. After a week of communicating through a dating app, we decided to meet face-to-face. I surprised myself by not being as nervous about it as I thought I’d be, but after what I’d been through, not much could hurt me anymore.

We met at a local restaurant for nachos, and my first glimpse of him coming toward me made me laugh. He was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket, and black boots. I was wearing jeans, a black & grey t-shirt, a black leather jacket, and black boots. As he approached me with a huge, dimpled smile on his face, I smiled and said, “I see you got the wardrobe memo.” He laughed and kissed my cheek, and I immediately felt at ease.

We spent the next few hours getting to know one another. He was smart. He was funny. He was easy to talk to. He had a smile that lit up his whole face and made his eyes sparkle. I soon came to realize that this was a Tuesday that was going to change my life.

For the next two years, we decided to make Tuesdays our mid-week date night. We are both the primary caregivers for our kids, and we live about 20 minutes from each other, so seeing each other every day isn’t an option. Holding those Tuesdays sacred to build our relationship was important. I would sit in rush hour traffic for an hour to get to him one week, and he would come to me after driving all over Seattle for work the next.

One Tuesday, in particular, I had had a really rough day. I got to his house, and he said, “C’mon. I’m taking you somewhere.” We hopped on his motorcycle, and as I held onto him, my sadness started to fade. That sweet, sweet man – knowing how much the water soothes me – drove me right down to the waters edge where the sun was setting. As we stood on the shore, his arms wrapped around me, I felt my worries slip away, and let the peace of the moment overwhelm me.

So Tuesdays have become part of our story – the part that we made sure to happen every week as we got to know each other, no matter how tired we were or how inconvenient it might have been. Every Tuesday morning, I would wake up with a smile, knowing I’d get to see him at the end of another busy day, and it sustained me.

Our date night has changed with our life’s circumstances, but we still make that time for one another. At some point, when the time is right, our lives will fully blend. And on those future Tuesdays, I will wake with a smile – and see his dimpled smile beaming back at me.