Their Late-Night Phone Calls Confirmed They Were Right for Each Other

On a night out at 1-800-Lucky, an Asian food hall in Miami, Kieran Randolph Miller’s sister directed his attention toward Emma Marie McGee, who was there with a friend.

“There was a running joke that my sister didn’t think I was interested in the girls I was dating,” Mr. Miller said. “She’d say, ‘I don’t see that girl as your type.’ When she saw Emma, the first thing she said was, ‘Now that’s your type.’”

She turned out to be right. Mr. Miller and Ms. McGee, who were both on vacation, spoke for an hour or so that evening in January 2022. They hit it off, and the next morning, Mr. Miller and his friend made the half-hour drive from the Wynwood neighborhood, where they were staying, to South Beach, where Ms. McGee was staying, so he could casually direct message her on Instagram to say they were having brunch in the area.

“Then we had our first date,” Ms. McGee said, “with a chaperone.”

Afterward, Ms. McGee flew back to Seattle, where she lived at the time, and Mr. Miller returned to New York, where he and Ms. McGee live now.

Ms. McGee, 28, grew up in Lake Stevens, Wash., outside Seattle, and received an associate degree in merchandise and marketing from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. She moved to New York City in 2023 and works as a digital design director at Amrak Solutions, a company that builds digital platforms for businesses.

Mr. Miller, 29, was born and raised in Montclair, N.J., and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. He is a senior director at JLL, a real estate services firm. In 2019, he opened his own business, Burchard, which renovates, develops and rents residential properties.