Matt Burcher and Tangela Duncan posed beside the big fountain at City Center as the afternoon light faded all around them.
"Eskimo kiss," said Amanda MacDiarmid, camera to her eye. "Grab her cheek. Gaze deeply."
They met in high school, age 13, nearly two decades ago. They plan to marry in May. They are an interacial couple and have no fears, they said, of the racism that seems to have reared up with new audacity in recent months.
"I think we have excelled significantly in this country, especially in this area," Duncan said. "No matter who the president is, what time it is, I think we're moving forward as America."
They weren't always a couple. But three years ago, they decided to try a date. Asked his advice for the guy who likes the girl and never said so, Burcher smiled.
"Just do it," he said. "What are the chances?"
And Duncan's advice for the girl?
"She better do it," she said. "Take that chance. There are far too few out here. Just take the chance. Take the chance."
