Magic was in the air the first time Michelle Navarro and Christopher Zegunis met. It was 10 a.m. on a Saturday in November 2016, and the two were the first arrivals for a class at the Magic Castle, a private club for magicians in Los Angeles.
“We started talking and I thought, he’s a cute guy,” Ms. Navarro said.
Their immediate connection developed during the next six weeks as they learned and practiced magic tricks together. “Crushes developed,” Ms. Navarro said.
On the last day of the course, Mr. Zegunis made his move. “I like this girl,” he said. “I should just ask her out.” He invited her for dinner at a gastro pub called Public School 310 in Culver City, Calif.
The date lasted all evening, as they moved on from the restaurant to a bar. “He was so much fun,” she said. “I was constantly laughing.”
Ms. Navarro, 39, a senior director of media services at the Fox Corporation, was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering. Mr. Zegunis, 53, a logistics coordinator at Toms Shoes, grew up in Rockford, Ill., and moved to Los Angeles 25 years ago.
They moved in together in Los Angeles, in August 2019, a few months before the coronavirus pandemic began. “That was a big test,” Mr. Zegunis said. “I never got tired. It was never like, ‘What did I get myself into?’ That’s probably when I realized this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
