They Saw Each Other at a Jazz Club and Never Looked Away
My (Liberating) Secret Shame
October 6, 2023A Co-Sign From Grandma Sealed the Deal
October 6, 2023This post was originally published on this site
Robyn Green was drawn to Jeb Roberts during his guitar solo of a favorite song. The moment Mr. Roberts introduced himself, he knew he liked Ms. Green.
On an October evening in 2018, Robyn Marie Green accompanied some of her co-workers to watch Olivia K & the Parkers, a jazz group from Brooklyn, perform at Groove, a jazz bar in the West Village in Manhattan. The band covered “What You Don’t Do” by Lianne La Havas, who is one of Ms. Green’s favorite artists. During the song’s guitar solo, Ms. Green found herself drawn to the guitarist — John Edward Bradly Roberts.
After the show, Mr. Roberts, who had also noticed Ms. Green, introduced himself to her. “We got to talking, and I decided very quickly that I really liked this girl,” said Mr. Roberts, 30, who goes by Jeb.
The pair made plans to grab drinks the following week but ended up crossing paths at a Halloween party that weekend. (Both of them were invited thanks to a shared social connection; the co-worker who had invited Ms. Green to Groove was friends with someone on an intramural baseball team with Mr. Roberts.)
That night, Ms. Green was further charmed by Mr. Roberts. So much so that she asked him if he was interested in moving up their date by a few days. He said yes.
Their first date included drinks at a bar in the East Village, dinner at an empanada spot and a stroll through Thompkins Square Park, where they shared their first kiss. Mr. Roberts then walked Ms. Green home to her East Village apartment.
For their second date, they went to a Tom Misch concert at Terminal 5, a live music venue. Later in a taxi, Ms. Green fell asleep on Mr. Roberts’s shoulder. That small moment — where she felt completely safe with someone she had only known for a short amount of time — holds great meaning now, Ms. Green, 30, said.
Ms. Green, who grew up in Austin, Texas, and Ann Arbor, Mich., has a bachelor’s degree in communication and media from the University of Michigan and works as an advertising director at The New York Times.
Mr. Roberts, who was raised in Winchester, Mass., has a bachelor’s in physics from Yale and works as a software engineer at HeraldAPI, a digital infrastructure for commercial insurance carriers. He also moonlights as a musician and music producer.
After only a few weeks of dating, Mr. Roberts said “I love you” — in Mandarin. He had studied Mandarin in college and was desperate to express his feelings, but in a manner that wouldn’t alarm Ms. Green. She deciphered what he meant almost immediately and was not scared off. In fact, she said, she relishes Mr. Roberts’s offbeat humor and personality quirks: Sometimes he bunches up napkins to stuff in his ears if he doesn’t have any earplugs on hand, for instance.
“Anyone who knows him knows he is genuine — always his true self,” Ms. Green said.
In June 2020, the couple moved into an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, together. On July 16, 2022, Mr. Roberts proposed at the site of their first kiss in Thompkins Square Park. “Robyn has this composure about her that keeps the train on the rails when things get tough,” Mr. Roberts said. “She’s very loving and expressing about her love and affection.”
The couple was married on Sept. 23 at the Bronx Zoo. Ms. Green said they wanted a traditional wedding but also wanted it to be unserious and fun. “It felt very true to us,” Ms. Green said.
Guests enjoyed a cocktail hour in the Madagascar exhibit, gawking at lemurs, snakes and crocodiles. Caleb Small, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life Church minister for the event, officiated in front of 125 guests. Olivia Parker, the lead singer of Olivia K & the Parkers, sang “Pink + White” by Frank Ocean for the couple’s first dance.
Not surprisingly, music plays a big part in their relationship. They attend many concerts together, and play records while cooking. Their apartment has two large keyboards and more than half a dozen guitars — and Ms. Green is slowly learning how to play the guitar.
Often when Mr. Roberts is practicing on his guitar, Ms. Green will interrupt, either to ask him music-theory questions or request that he play a pop song. Whether he knows the chords and lyrics or not, Mr. Roberts always obliges.
“It takes a deep level of curiosity and openness and respect to always want to engage your partner and indulge them on their silly questions,” Ms. Green said. “No question is too small for him to dive into.”
