At the beginning of the pandemic, one romantic comedy setup I heard repeatedly (from fellow authors, hoping to wrangle a book deal out of the situation) was the one about the couple who meet on Tinder and have one date in real life, before (for a variety of complicated and tenuous reasons) they have no choice but to move in together because of lockdown. It’s easy to see why this idea was so attractive: it was a ready-made romcom plot. Take two fish, remove them from their water and watch hilarity ensue.
Of course, no one ever suggested a happily married couple for this kind of scenario because what fun would that be to read? And yet, over the past two years, I’ve found myself living in a gentle romantic comedy of sorts – less When Harry Met Sally, and more I’d Always Thought You Were My Favourite Human Being But Thanks to Two Years of Covid, I Now Know This for a Fact.
