Just as quickly, they became inextricably part of each other’s lives. Raúl showed up to nearly every one of Colman’s performances in the Jonestown play with a bouquet of white roses. In a way, watching Colman act was a lens for Raúl to divine what he could about the man he loved. “I feel like I needed to understand everything that you are,” Raúl explains now as Colman wears a small, pursed smile. Their first summer together, they moved to Juneau, Alaska, where Colman got an acting gig. Raúl took a job as an assistant costume designer on the shoot so he could go too. When they moved down to New York in November, Raúl proposed.
It’s difficult to imagine the serendipity of Colman and Raúl’s fairy tale happening today, during an era when we can optimize love right out of our lives. If Colman had seen Raúl, who’s 11 years younger, on a dating app, he says, he likely would have swiped right past him. “It is magical,” Colman says, “the imperfections or the off-roading and things like that. It’s supposed to be like this. You never know what you’re supposed to get.”
Nine years after they first met outside that California Walgreens, Colman and Raúl were married in a small, casual ceremony disguised as a house party. They invited 25 people over and greeted each one by saying, “Welcome to our wedding.” Colman wore a Hawaiian shirt; they danced until four in the morning. They are still living happily ever after when I talk to them in December. Behind them, just as it’s been since the beginning, is a bouquet of white roses.
Cam Wolf is a GQ staff writer.
A version of this story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue with the title “A Cupid’s Tale, With A Craigslist Twist.”
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