A Bloody Nose and an “I Love You" After a Week of Meeting
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| Christopher Traina, left, and Gregory Addicott.Deirdre Alston |
By Jenny Block
The New York Times
Gregory Michael Addicott was on a date with another man when he met Christopher Francis Traina on Jan. 6, 2018.
Mr. Traina was attending his friend Lindsay Braverman Cilento’s birthday party, and he was excited to catch up with Ms. Cilento and her best friend, Krista Pioppi, who brought her boyfriend.
When Mr. Traina complimented her on the new beau, she mentioned that her colleague, Mr. Addicott, had set them up. That’s when she had an idea.
She told Mr. Traina that she was actually meeting Mr. Addicott at the Upper East Side location of Boxers, which has since closed, after the party. As fate would have it, Mr. Traina already had plans to go to Boxers.
But, when they arrived, things didn’t go quite as she had envisioned. Mr. Addicott recalled, “I was there on a date with someone else I had been seeing. Very unofficial.”
Despite that fact, he took notice of Mr. Traina. “We talked for an hour with the guy I was supposed to be with next to me,” Mr. Addicott said.
Once Mr. Traina’s friends showed up, the two said their goodbyes, and at the night’s end, Mr. Traina recalled that he left thinking, “‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’” given that he was there with someone else.
Then he got a call from Ms. Pioppi a few days later, “She was like, ‘We need to talk about Greg. He thinks you’re really cute. And he’s not serious about that other guy,’” Mr. Traina recalled her saying.
She immediately put the two in a group chat. And just five nights after the meeting, “We talked for hours, and we planned an actual date for the following night,” Mr. Traina said.
On Jan. 12, the two went to a Hell’s Kitchen cocktail lounge, Barrage, now closed. It went really well. “We joked about our future wedding,” Mr. Traina said.
“It was great to get right to the good stuff,” Mr. Addicott said. “I don’t want to do the surface stuff. Tell me about your insecurities, your fears, your dreams.”
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| A black and white photo of a couple holding hands and walking along an outdoor path underneath trees. |
Credit...Deirdre Alston
At the end of the night. Mr. Addicott walked Mr. Traina to Port Authority to catch his bus to his father’s house in Cedar Grove, N.J., where he was staying that night. “He waited with me for the bus,” Mr. Traina said. “It made me think, ‘This guy is the real deal.’”
Just a week after they met, out on one of their many dates, Mr. Traina accidentally socked Mr. Addicott in the nose. “His nose started to bleed and I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I love you.’”
The two celebrated Valentine’s Day together less than six weeks after meeting, and “we became official,” Mr. Traina said. They immediately began what they affectionately call their “press tour,” introducing one another to their respective families and friends.
In April 2019, Mr. Addicott, whose lease was ending, moved into Mr. Traina’s apartment in Jersey City, N.J., temporarily before they got their first apartment together in Long Island City that June. In March 2021, they bought a condominium together in Hoboken, N.J., where they still live.
After an initial pandemic delay, Mr. Traina proposed on Sept. 24, 2022. He asked a Broadway performer friend, Jelani Remy, currently in “Back to the Future: The Musical,” to pretend he was developing a new show and invite them to an industry reading.
The ruse worked, and Mr. Traina proposed to Mr. Addicott outside the Greenwich House Theater. They celebrated with nearly 90 friends at Bar Hugo.
Mr. Traina, 35, is a brand, marketing, and design consultant. He holds a bachelor’s of professional studies, now called a bachelor’s of science, from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and grew up in Cedar Grove, N.J.
Mr. Addicott, 32, is a nurse and the director of nursing, consumer experience, and access at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He holds a bachelor’s in public health from Ithaca College, a bachelor’s in nursing from SUNY Downstate University, and a master’s in nursing administration from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. He grew up in Trumansburg, N.Y.
The couple were wed on Sept. 14 at the Callicoon Hills resort in the Catskills. Sarah Ritchie, ordained by the Universal Brotherhood Movement, led the outdoor ceremony before 175 guests.
Mr. Addicott said one of his favorite moments was at the after-party when Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” played. “Everyone was belting their faces off. It was like we were all emotionally and spiritually tethered together throughout the melody,” Mr. Addicott said. “If I could, I would live in that moment forever.”
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