The first time Colton Dakota Elliott asked out Allie Londyn Hill, it didn’t go particularly well.
“In seventh grade he asked me to be his girlfriend for the first time,” Ms. Hill said. “And I was like, ‘No, I’d really like to be friends.’”
He tried again in eighth grade, making an unsubtle post about his crush on Facebook, but Ms. Hill still wasn’t interested.
Ms. Hill, 27, and Mr. Elliott, 26, both lived in Lexington, Tenn., at the time, but they fell out of touch when Ms. Hill’s family moved to Jackson, Tenn., just before she began high school.
They always remained friendly on social media, liking each other’s Instagram stories and occasionally messaging. She moved to Memphis to get a bachelor’s degree in biology at Rhodes College, and he went to N.Y.U. and received a bachelor’s degree in politics, rights and development.
But when Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race in April 2020, Ms. Hill replied to some of Mr. Elliott’s Instagram stories about the news. Mr. Elliott had plenty of time to post on social media since he lost his bartending job to the pandemic, and Ms. Hill messaged him that they were probably the only Sanders supporters to ever live in the small conservative town of Lexington.
“It turned into ‘How have you been? What are you doing?’” Ms. Hill said.
“And then it became much more personal very quickly,” Mr. Elliott added.
