Let's set the scene:

Lyssa- a frumpy girl wearing all gray, sipping water from a heinous camelback on a trip she didn't want to go on. She had explored a city she was familiar with and frankly, wanted to just go home. This trip was Birthright. She knew some soldiers were joining the group in Tel Aviv.  She figured, 'why not stay? Maybe they would add some spice.'

 

The group from America is standing next to their bus in the middle of Rabin Square. Lyssa sees people in uniform walking towards them. A guy appears: a certified TEN, in full military garb. By the time he approaches the group, Lyssa has already fallen for him.

 

They mingle - playing some ice breaker games, and then they all board the bus. They will be together for five days.

 

A day has passed, and they are driving in the middle of nowhere. The bus pulls over to get gas and Lyssa goes to the bathroom (shocker). As she exits the bathroom she sees THE GUY- sitting alone playing something on his phone. 

She takes a deep breath and sits down next to him.  "Hi, I'm Lyssa.  What games do you have on your phone?" He says "Hi, I'm Hadar" and shows her the piano game he has been playing.  As they are called back to the bus, she asks him to sit next to her so she can show him the fun game she has on her phone. The next leg of the ride is three hours to the Bedouin tents.

 

They chat about life and his service in the military, with intermittent pauses to laugh at trucks loaded with camels. When they finally reach the destination, they part ways.  Nightfall comes and Lyssa grabs her mat to sleep in the tent  and places it right next to her best friend, Sammy. She steps away for a moment, and when she comes back, she finds Hadar’s mat next to hers.   They talk until four in the morning.

 

The next day the group sets off to Jerusalem with a stop at a field midway.  Unexpectedly, a seizure hits Lyssa. She makes her way onto the bus and sits alone to calm down. As everyone gets back on the bus, Hadar sits next to her with a handful of tissues, chocolates, and calming words of support. He says she is a warrior and can get through anything.

 

On the final day in Jerusalem, Lyssa is sitting with her friends crying because they have to say goodbye to the soldiers. Hadar is nowhere to be found.

 

Lyssa gets to her seat and finds on her backpack a bag of the same chocolates Hadar gave her to calm her down as well as one of his warrior pins, pinned to the front of the backpack. She runs off the bus to find him and they share a kiss goodbye.

 

Lyssa is staying in Israel for two more weeks to visit her family and continues to WhatsApp Hadar. She mentions that the train ride to her family in Haifa is not too far, and he is welcome to visit if he wants. Although he says he would love to visit, she doesn't expect much from a person she only met six days earlier. 

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At 9 am the next morning she gets a call from Hadar saying "I’m almost at the station, come pick me up." 

He met her family, and they had Shabbat over an extraordinarily spicy fish dish in her family's apartment with a broken air conditioner. A sweltering summer night with spicy fish and a very animated family was his first test. 

 

He passed.

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Soon after, she took the train to Tel Aviv to meet him, for their first real date. She stayed with Hadar at his parents’ home for the weekend. The next morning, she woke up to a knock on the door- it was Hader’s sister, brother-in-law, their kids, his cousins, his grandfather, and what seemed like the entire extended family. 

 

She passed that test. 

 

That night they said their first "I love yous" and they have not stopped saying it every day since.