Kaley Lockwood and Michael Friedman, who met on Hinge, had once lived a few blocks from each other and had the same commute to work.
“Do you ever feel like a masochist for choosing your job?” Kaley Lynn Lockwood messaged Michael Brett Friedman on Hinge in August 2021. Ms. Lockwood had noted that both she and Mr. Friedman were product managers.
Her opening line managed to grab his attention. The two — whose jobs entailed working with a variety of teams to ensure an item’s strategy, development and success — began messaging on the app before moving to text and making plans for a first date in Brooklyn later that month.
They had a cocktail at Hotel Delmano, a beer at Radegast Hall & Biergarten and then a slice at Joe’s Pizza before walking to North 5th Street Pier and Park. “We laid on the chaise longues and talked until 2 a.m.,” Ms. Lockwood said.
After the date “she said, ‘call me sometime,’ which was so cute,” Mr. Friedman said.
Their second date came six days later and included drinks at the Up & Up in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and then a show at the Comedy Cellar. By mid-November, Ms. Lockwood asked Mr. Friedman to be her boyfriend. “I already thought we were dating,” he admitted.
Along the way, the two discovered they had much in common. Years before, they had lived only a few blocks from each other in Washington, D.C. “Our paths had to have crossed because we had the same commute to work,” Ms. Lockwood said.
On Sept. 20, 2021, the day before her birthday, Mr. Friedman took Ms. Lockwood out for drinks and dinner to celebrate.
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