As Told by Hugh:

Hugh never knew a seminar on flu genetics could be so exciting. Sitting back in his seat, he shot up as a tall woman with dark boy-cut hair and glasses strolled into the room sporting a vintage pair of hiking boots, tight jeans and Carolina hoodie. Hugh didn’t learn anything about influenza that day, whatever the speaker had to say could never compete with her allure. As the hour drew to a close, he watched as she got up and walked out of the auditorium, wishing for a reason to speak to her.

Months later, Hugh’s boss, John, asked if he would be willing to meet a young scientist interested in applying to the PhD program he was enrolled in. He agreed. After a short email exchange with the Lake Potter in question, they chose to meet for coffee in the adjacent building. Hugh arrived early, looking around for any sign of her. After a minute,  who should round the corner, but the woman from the flu seminar, on crutches no less. Surprisingly, she seemed to looking straight at him!

“Lake?”, he asked.

“Yeah. Hugh?”, she replied.

Hugh was a tea man after a stint working as a barista at Starbucks, but he wanted to impress her. The sipped their dark roast as Hugh did his best to convince Lake that the NIH Graduate Partnership Program was the most well funded, prestigious and promising PhD program in the world and that the Vaccine Research Center was the best place to work in that program. Crossing his fingers, they parted ways once more, but this time, he had a phone number, so they could keep in touch.

It would be more than a year before Lake would return to do her customary laboratory rotations for her PhD. Hugh crossed his fingers tightly, hoping she would end up working in the same as he. His hopes came true, as Lake’s post was the adjacent desk to his own. For some time he would admire her beauty and pipetting prowess at work, always turning first to his left to address his scientific questions to Lake. As they were both unavailable, Hugh would resist her allure until he no longer could.

More than a year went by like this…

Following some momentous life changes, a newly single Lake and newly single Hugh decided to make a go of it. The initial attraction was magnetic. The duo would spend long stretches together, sometimes going an entire week without parting. They would frolic in their local farmers market, Safeway or Trader Joe’s making delicious meals together. A highlight of that intense period was the tomato sandwich, made from cheap bread, mayonnaise and heirloom tomatoes.

They supported each other through tough times, and rejoiced in each other’s love during the good times. Lake provided Hugh with huge support while he wrote and defended his thesis. While the feelings grew stronger, Hugh also knew he had originally planned to move to Sweden for his next job, and soon the day came to decide. It was clear, in his mind, there there never even was a decision. He and Lake went together too well to give up, especially for a job. He called his prospective new boss in Sweden to give her the news. 

Since then, their relationship grown deeper and stronger every day. They strive to understand, accept, and support one another. Fueled by crossword puzzles, tuna salad, and Phil’s coffee, they have grown into a dynamic duo whose love is undeniable by those who spend even the shortest time with them.

 

As told by Lake:

I emailed Hugh to see if he wouldn’t mind meeting for coffee and telling me a bit about his grad school experience. He was cute! He was easy to talk to! We hit it off! I emailed him afterwards and invited him to trivia.

I joined the lab and ended up sitting next to Hugh. After a year of getting to know each other better (and a couple of big life changes for both of us along the way), we started spending more time together and realized that spending time together felt really good. We bonded over science, rock climbing, coffee breaks and crossword puzzles, and Saturday morning walks to the farmers’ market.

We went to Maine and Massachusetts so I could meet Hugh’s folks and then Hugh came to Raleigh for Christmas. A bit later, he moved into my tiny studio apartment with me. For a while there, we were carpooling to work together, working (literally) next to each other, climbing a few times a week together, and living in a 500 square foot apartment; not only did we not kill each other, it was super fun! While we don’t work next to each other any more (congratulations, Dr. Hugh!) and our new apartment is the tiniest bit bigger (650 square feet!), I’m so excited to spend all my days with this cute, kind, smart, funny, generous, wonderful man.