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It’s worth it to see Nick’s grinning face.

“Hey, you.”

“Hey.”

“There’s an awesome story glowing up. I was just about to send it to you,” he says.

This is how we survive the tours Nick doesn’t join me on. With small rituals and conversations that continue almost seamlessly despite hours in between. And one of our favorite rituals is sending each other posts from the QueerWaystoFallinLovelightbeam on the ShareYourGlow forum.

“Tell me about it,” I say as I pull off my stage jacket one-handed.

“Okay, so these two guys live next door to each other and loathe each other. But then one of their dogs impregnates the other one’s, and when the puppies are born, they have to work together to control the chaos of six puppies.

“That’s really cute.”

“I know! It’s like, take an enemies-to-lovers story and add six puppies. What else could you want?”

I can’t help laughing.

Nick posted our story on QueerWaystoFallinLove about a year after we got together. It got thousands of interactions, glowing so bright it was practically blinding. But the best part was when some moderator named TruthGuardian flagged it and asked for “verifying details” because, apparently, the idea of someone catfishing as a celebrity and actually being that celebrity was “statistically improbable.”

Nick had to send screenshots of our text conversations and a photo of us together as proof.

I could understand TruthGuardian’s skepticism. Sometimes I still can’t believe this is real. That the guy who made a video mocking my pretentious apartment is now the person I come home to. That the stranger I messaged on a whim has become the one I message first about everything—the good stuff, the bad stuff, the weird thoughts about whether fish get thirsty or not.

“Ours is still a better story,” Nick says. “Especially since we managed to stumble onto the secret to long-lasting love.”

“We have? And what is that?” I pull a fresh shirt over my head.

“A whole lot of mockery.”

“Yes, I believe I learned that the first time I met your family,” I say because that will forever be one of my favorite days of my life, if not also one of the most cringe-worthy.

Nick laughs as I check my hair in my dressing room mirror.

“You probably should concentrate on getting ready to meet your adoring fans,” he says.

“Yeah, I should go. I’ll call after it finishes. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hang up and finish making myself presentable.

But when I’m done getting ready, I still have a spare two minutes, so I grab my phone. There’s not enough time to call Nick again, so I settle on my next favorite thing—watching a video of Nick giving an apartment tour.

But it’s not the original clip of him mocking me by showing off his crappy apartment that he shared with Jade, the video I used to watch over and over again before I actually met him.

Instead, this is anArchitectural Livingvideo that was released six months ago. It features the brownstone that Nick and I bought after we got married because we wanted a place we could decorate together and that had more space for the dogs.

In this one, Nick opens our front door with his grin that shows off his dimples. I’m standing next to him, with the expression I frequently wear around Nick. The one I’ve heard described as “adorable” by many fans and “nauseating” by Gloria.

“Hi, everyone, we’re Nick and Anthony Marchesi-Devine, and welcome to our home.”