Two Epic Dates and an Incredible Arcade Game Feat

When Alyssa Bush traveled from Baltimore to Seattle in February 2019, it was primarily to go to a good friend with a brand new child. However she additionally wished to discover the town. Along with her good friend preoccupied by parenthood, Ms. Bush logged into Tinder and Bumble, hoping to attach with somebody she may meet for a drink or a meal. On each courting apps, she matched with Jennifer Banegas.

Inside hours of connecting, Ms. Bush, 38, and Ms. Banegas, 42, went out for drinks at Unicorn, a bar in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Their outing become “a 12-hour date” that included “musical singalongs, a drag present, drinks with one of many drag queens from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and a pair of a.m. breakfast,” Ms. Bush stated.

The subsequent day, they acquired collectively once more for a shorter, 10-hour date that began on the Elliott Bay Guide Firm and ended with dinner at Saint John’s Bar and Eatery. In between had been a number of hours of enjoying Ms. Pac-Man on the Raygun Lounge.

The month earlier than the 2 met, Ms. Bush had legally separated from her ex-wife; their divorce was finalized in July 2020 after 10 years of marriage. After her back-to-back dates with Ms. Banegas, who grew to become divorced from her ex-husband in 2009 after six years of marriage, Ms. Banegas stated she “was on cloud 9.”

“I simply bear in mind this sense of full pleasure,” Ms. Banegas added, “and considering I wished to get a tattoo of Ms. Pac-Man; that manner, every time I noticed it, I may do not forget that feeling.”

The next month, Ms. Bush returned to Seattle to go to Ms. Banegas. She went again a month later — this time not simply to see Ms. Banegas, but additionally to search for an residence. That June, she relocated to the town.

In June 2020, a yr after Ms. Bush moved to Seattle, she moved in with Ms. Banegas. However earlier than that milestone got here one other for the couple: Getting matching Ms. Pac-Man tattoos.

A graduate of the College of Maryland, Baltimore County, Ms. Bush, who’s from Laurel, Md., obtained a grasp’s diploma in social work from the College of Maryland Baltimore and at the moment works for an insurance coverage firm in care administration. Ms. Banegas, who works as a grocery retailer supervisor, grew up in Massapequa, N.Y., and attended Suffolk Group School in Selden, N.Y.

That August, the couple made what Ms. Banegas described as a “pandemic splurge,” buying a tabletop arcade machine that included a model of Ms. Pac-Man and the sport BurgerTime. The subsequent month, she made one other costly buy: a diamond and alexandrite ring.

In October 2020, Ms. Banegas started what she known as “Operation Proposal.” Her plan: to play BurgerTime nicely sufficient that she may change the 4 highest-scoring names on the sport’s scoreboard to learn: WILL YOU MARRY ME?

“This isn’t as simple because it sounds,” Ms. Banegas stated (and this reporter didn’t recommend it did). “I scored too excessive and blew the order of phrases.”

The subsequent day, she tried once more. However irrespective of how nicely she performed, Ms. Banegas couldn’t knock the best scoring identify, KEN, from its place atop the scoreboard. “As an alternative it learn: KEN WIL YOU MAR ME?” she stated. “So I went with it!”

When she known as Ms. Bush over to see her new excessive scores, her first response was, “‘Are you Ken?’” Ms. Banegas recalled. “I stated, ‘No, hold trying. She stated, ‘Are you Wil —Oh!’ After which she stated, ‘Sure.’”

“Alyssa’s nickname is now Ken,” Ms. Banegas added.

The 2 wed on April 1 on the Elkridge Furnace Inn in Elkridge, Md. Samantha Novoa, Ms. Banegas’s niece who was ordained by the Common Life Church for the event, officiated earlier than 88 visitors, all of whom examined unfavourable for Covid, and most of whom had been vaccinated.

Marrying on April Fools’ Day appeared becoming, Ms. Banegas stated, as a result of “I at all times say, ‘Alyssa have to be a idiot to marry me.” And, sure, there was an April Fools’ Day joke. After Ms. Novoa defined the importance of their wedding ceremony rings, the couple feigned shedding them because the ring field was opened and faux ones tumbled out.

“They made a giant cling clang noise, and we beginning looking out all around the flooring for the rings,” Ms. Banegas stated. “Then Alyssa and I circled and stated, ‘April Fools!’”