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I had just moved from Lake Tahoe into a 3 bed / 1 bed apartment, which Mihir later lovingly nicknamed a “shithole”. The apartment didn’t have A/C and there was a heat wave. More on that in just a bit.

My 1st unofficial MBA event (it was COVID so nothing was official) was a group hike up East Rock Park. The 1st thing I noticed when I joined the group was that there were 5 men and me. The 2nd thing I noticed was that 1 of them was from California. Mihir wore his bright red 49ers shirt. We spoke for a bit but I didn’t think much of it. I was mainly concerned about the group deciding to take the route labeled “Giant Steps” rather than the easy, paved road. 

We got to the top and I was extremely dehydrated. I took a seat on a bench hoping to catch my breath and fainted. As I came back to my senses, I heard Mihir calling an ambulance as others rushed to get me water. I went from fainting to dying of embarrassment and hoped I wouldn’t have to see any of these men again. Of course, 3 of the 5 ended up in my section, 1 of which was Mihir. This meant we’d have classes together for the rest of the year. 

We started as friends until one night he invited me over for a movie night. Every 20 minutes, he slowly moved closer to me on the couch. It was so obvious he was trying to make a move but I wasn’t ready for it. We continued hanging out as friends until I visited my best friend Anusha for her birthday. During this trip, she convinced me to take a chance. 

By the way, when we went back and looked at our texts from 4 years ago, I never said “How about another movie night”. But Mihir likes to fantasize so I’m going to let him have this.