— David’s current girlfriend makes wishes on everything: fallen eyelashes, birthday candles, pennies tossed into fountains, first stars, shooting stars, wishbones, chopsticks, dandelions and first spring robins. According to David, she always wishes for the same thing: that strawberries tasted more like candy.

— Brande recently hung out with his girlfriend from junior high. They hadn’t seen each other for almost a decade. Back then, she would get sudden nosebleeds when she was just sitting in class, riding the bus or whatever. He asked her if she still gets them. She said not as often, but that when she does, it makes her wistfully nostalgic. She said flat out: “Nosebleeds make me happy.”

— Jacob dated one woman on and off for almost six years, and she once admitted to this habit: The first time she enters the kitchen of someone she’s starts dating she steals one piece of cutlery and when the relationship ends, she buries the stolen ware in the public garden near her home. She confessed that she took over a dozen pieces of silverware from Jacob, one for each time they got back together.

— Dan’s wife places pennies face-up on the ground for strangers to find. She calls this process “fixing fate,” and passionately defends it as being altruistic.

— Gulliver dated a woman who, as a teenager, would scavenge tennis balls from the public courts, and then resell them through her father’s sporting goods store. Certain months she had to use a knapsack, there were so many. Her father paid her one dollar per dozen.

As for me, I dated a Scrabble enthusiast who, after a night of kissing and cuddling, would leave love notes composed from Scrabble tiles for me to find after she left. She was generous and loving, but I was often distracted with work, sometimes completely forgetting plans and showing up six hours late, apology in hand.