In 2021, Lena Leibrook Wilson made a list of everything she wanted in a partner.
Her list, she said, described someone who was self-aware, up for adventure, outdoorsy, and a lover of dogs and movies; someone who was more interested in a “chill night in than a wild night out,” among other qualities. After writing it all out, Ms. Wilson looked at the list and realized that she had described Nadine Marie Santoro.
It was a thrilling realization, but there was a problem: Ms. Wilson and Ms. Santoro were just friends at the time.
After meeting in a Facebook group for lesbians started by friends of friends in 2016, they met in person in 2018, when Ms. Wilson moved from Massachusetts to New York City. The two became close friends, witnessing big moments in each other’s lives, like the first time Ms. Wilson’s work appeared in print in The New York Times in 2019. Ms. Wilson, a freelance arts and culture journalist, was formerly a project manager in the newsroom at The Times.
In the summer of 2021, Ms. Wilson and Ms. Santoro found themselves living near each other in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Both were now single at the same time for the first time since they met.
“It was suddenly like: Wait, are you my soul mate? Have you been here this whole time?” Ms. Santoro, 28, said.
They started hanging out more. They went to Dr. Ronald McNair Park and read in the grass, and visited a sunflower farm together. “We were basically going on really romantic dates without knowing it,” Ms. Wilson, 30, said.
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