I have learned the deep, dark secret of how my brother met his girlfriend. And man, it just makes me love her more. The shocking true story... after these messages.→[More:] My brother has been very private about this relationship, and I don't blame him. It's been two years, and we finally met her yesterday. Can you tell that I have a total girl crush? I am feeling so good because she is not only an awesome person on her own merits, but she makes my brother both happy and calm.

AND she makes me have hope for the future of our family dinners (and my mental health after attending said dinners) because she is smart and sees right through my parents' shenanigans. sw00n.

For this whole time, I've been telling everyone that they met at a party. She said, "I can't date anyone because I'm moving across the country in 5 days" and then she called him and said, "I want to spend my last night in town with you." Awwwwww. So then he went out there and they shacked up on a whim and it was just ridiculously meant to be. Yada yada, romantic comedy, fairy tale, unicorns, rainbows.

Somewhere along the line he (or maybe my parents) told me, "No, they met on the Internet while she was in Germany for something." He never struck me as an OkCupid kind of guy, but I thought, "Well, he's in his late 20s and hasn't really had a serious relationship; maybe he just finally wanted to settle down." It spoiled my fantasy of their fairy tale meet and greet, but no matter.

At this point I should mention that, while he is currently an unemployed fishmonger, she is a capital-I Intellectual. She has a master's in interdisciplinary humanities from the University of Chicago, with an undergrad degree in philosophy. She recently quit grad school two years into some program in German something-something (she was a Kafka scholar, I think) after spending time in Germany translating a novel; they're moving back to the Midwest so she can work for an architectural foundation. I imagined that since he can be a bit intense, she was probably kind of intense too, but they seemed to like each other, and that was all that mattered.

(To my detriment, I also admit thinking, "Geez, what does she see in him?" But then again, aside from being awfully entertaining, he does make restaurant-quality multicourse dinners every night. Mussels in a lemongrass curry broth! Halibut escabeche! White truffle risotto and seared kale with lemon! I hate to say this about my brother, but he is kind of a catch.)

Well, the truth is out. And somehow, it's STILL better than I could ever have hoped.

They met playing Hobo Wars on Facebook.