Our story didn’t start with a big moment, it started at work, in the middle of everyday conversations and shared projects.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
At the time, it was straightforward: we were working on the same projects, solving problems, spending time in the same conversations. We worked well together from the start. There was a natural ease, the kind where collaboration doesn’t feel forced and conversations don’t feel like effort.
It was good, but it also felt contained. Neither of us expected it to become anything more.
That changed in May 2025, during a work trip to Barbados.
Work was what introduced us, but that trip was what gave us time, outside of meetings and deadlines, to actually get to know each other. We ended up spending more time together than planned, talking about things beyond work, sharing meals, and seeing how we each moved through everyday situations.
We’d traveled together before in Japan and sang our hearts out in a karaoke bar in Tokyo, while ad-libbing different anime quotes, which made us realize we’re not so different after all. It was like a true Sakura–Sasuke moment
One weekend, at the end of the trip, we went on a road trip around Barbados. As many might know, Zoë doesn’t know how to drive hehe so naturally, she became the passenger princess, but gladly took on the rightful role of being navigator and DJ to George. Navigating him through the different spots across the entire country.
There’s only so much you can control when you’re in a car together for hours. You notice small things, how someone reacts, how they listen, how they handle the unexpected. It’s also where you start to see whether you can just be friends, without effort. That mattered to both of us.
The next day, we went to church.
We spoke to a couple of elders and asked them to pray with us, specifically for “surrender.” At that point, both of us were already on our own journeys, trying to deepen our individual relationships with God, separate from each other. But in that moment, it became clear that this wasn’t something we wanted to figure out on our own.
From early on, we made the decision to keep God at the center of whatever this would become.
After Barbados, we went back to our lives, Zoë in South Korea, George in Kenya.
For a few months, our relationship existed across time zones. Calls at odd hours, video calls while we “co-ate” together, sharing meals remotely lol, planning around schedules that didn’t always align. It wasn’t easy, but it was consistent. We kept showing up.
There wasn’t a single moment where everything suddenly changed. It was gradual.
What started as a working relationship became a friendship, and then something deeper, something we chose intentionally. Looking back, it makes sense that it started with work. It gave us a foundation, respect, trust, and the ability to build something steady.
From the beginning, we knew our relationship would bring together more than just the two of us.
There were new foods to try and amazing fusions we didn’t expect to come together like ugali and sisig, or tilapia wet fry and sinangag.
There were new traditions to understand like wedding and marriage traditions like dowry and ruracio in Kenyan-Kikuyu cultures, and courting and pamamanhikan in Filipino culture.
We met each other’s families. And without hesitation, even if we came from very different backgrounds and countries, both sides embraced each other.
We didn’t expect any of this.
But we’re grateful for how it unfolded.
