Neither Stefanie Cassandra Manisero nor John Morehouse Avanzino went into their first date with very high expectations.
The two had met in April 2022 through the dating app Bumble, bonding over baseball, and the following month agreed to meet for drinks at Daintree, a roof deck bar at the Hotel Hendricks in Midtown Manhattan.
“All of my friends married early — I was the last single woman standing,” said Ms. Manisero, 34. She was fearful she might never meet her person.
Mr. Avanzino felt the same way. “I was single for so long that 20 of my friends had a bet whether I would find love before I turned 40,” said Mr. Avanzino, 37. “Only one friend said I would.”
Shared attraction and engaging conversation propelled the evening of their first date. Ms. Manisero said she had such a good time that she ordered a second drink, afraid that when the night ended, she might not see him again.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Their relationship moved cautiously, or as Ms. Manisero described it, “a slow burn, rather than a love explosion.” A first kiss happened on their fourth date in a stairwell at Citi Field stadium at the end of a Mets baseball game. “He didn’t want to just be my friend,” Ms. Manisero said, adding that she was “so relieved.”
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The post After He Proposed, 19 Friends Lost Their Bet appeared first on New York Times.
