Although their paths ran parallel at timestmt play, it was a speed-dating event on Zoom that brought Theodora Rust Clark and Alexis Brooke Redding together in November 2022.

“I did what I assume most people do when you log into Zoom speed dating: Survey the little strip of people at the top,” Ms. Clark said of the event, which was coordinated by the matchmaking service Little Gay Book. “I noticed Alexis immediately because she was very beautiful, and she was in the Boston area.”

Ms. Clark, 45, who goes by Dorie, lives in Miami, but she has spent many years in Massachusetts. She received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Smith College at the age of 18, and a master’s degree in theological studies from the Harvard Divinity School. She is a speaker, consultant and author of several business books, including “The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World” and “Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It.”

Ms. Redding, 49, has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, a master’s degree in human development and psychology, and a doctoral degree in human development and education, all from Harvard. She is a developmental psychologist who teaches education at Harvard and lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Ms. Redding also noticed Ms. Clark right away. “Dorie has this captivating energy,” she said. “There were 30 people on the Zoom screen, and she immediately stood out as so dynamic.”

[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]

When they were paired for a brief online date, they fell into an easy rapport. “It was so disappointing when our five minutes were over,” Ms. Redding said.

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