Ellyna Larson, a Federal agent with Homeland Security, walked through the front door of Eli’s Roots Hair Studio in Manassas, Va., in search of its owner, Kristi Bogart, a person of interest.
“She was busy with another client, so I texted my boss and said, ‘She’s beautiful,’” Ms. Larson said, “but then I began thinking about just getting out of there, just walking away because I was terrified.”
Ms. Larson (right), 47, had gone to the hair salon on April 11, 2019, not just to keep a hair appointment, but to finally meet Ms. Bogart, 30.
“My boss was one of Kristi’s clients,” Ms. Larson said, “she had been bragging about Kristi for years.”
“All I kept hearing from my boss was Kristi this and Kristi that,” Ms. Larson said. “But I had been going through a divorce for a while so I was pretty distracted, but when all of that was finally behind me, I decided to go there myself and meet this woman that my boss could not stop talking about. But I was so nervous.”
As was Ms. Bogart, who had also heard many wonderful things about Ms. Larson, the chief watch commander for the custom and border protection division of Homeland Security.
“We started talking and I found her so interesting and so attractive that I had trouble concentrating and actually messed up her haircut a little bit,” said Ms. Bogart.
“I took off a little too much from the back, she said. “I had to keep cutting her hair shorter and shorter to make it all look even again.”
“Of course, I didn’t tell her about it until we started dating,” Ms. Bogart said, laughing.
Within two months they were an item, but their 17-year age difference was much more noticeable than an uneven haircut. “At first my parents were against us being together because of the age-thing,” said Ms. Bogart, whose previous marriage also ended in divorce.
“But after meeting Ellyna several times and realizing, like I do, what a wonderful person she is and how happy she makes me, their attitudes began to change,” she said. “They became so much more accepting of our situation.”
From the moment they cleared that hurdle, Ms. Larson and Ms. Bogart’s relationship shifted into whirlwind mode.
In July 2019, they took a trip to Colorado, and in August, Ms. Bogart moved in to Ms. Larson’s home in Warrenton, Va., and in September, they were engaged on a beach in Ocean City, Md.
“I have started conversations with Kristi where I have shared some of the most vulnerable moments of my past, and she never once blinked,” Ms. Larson said. “I knew she was a keeper.”
They set a wedding date for April 11, and managed to keep it despite the presence of the coronavirus, though their event, initially planned at a Thai restaurant, was instead held in the couple’s backyard with 10 guests present.
“We should be in Hawaii and Tahiti right now, on our honeymoon,” Ms. Larson said. “Instead we’re sitting on the couch.”
Ten weeks ago, on that very couch, Ms. Bogart started a new conversation with Ms. Larson— both had been “on a fertility journey since October,” Ms. Larson said.
“I told her that we were pregnant,” Ms. Bogart said.
