It was love at first lockdown.
In February 2020, Recent Yorkers Matt Robertson and Khani Le met on Hinge and had an amazing first date at an Indian restaurant. The fun continued at an axe throwing range for his or her second date.
For his or her third outing, Robertson, now 34 and a marketing executive, and Le, 32 and a publicist, decided they need to go on an adventure.
Over text, Robertson suggested they go on a five-day vacation to Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
“You simply live once,” he remembers saying to himself with the intention to justify the danger, “What’s the worst that might occur?”
Le was game — despite some warnings from friends.
“I said yes, just throwing caution to the wind,” she said, adding, “I used to be form of like, ‘Drift and see what happens.’”
On March 17, they boarded a Delta flight at JFK.
They enjoyed three days of ziplining and cocktails at an all-inclusive resort, however the day before they were to return, they learned that their flights were canceled indefinitely consequently of the coronavirus shutdown within the US.
Their third date become each a 79-day nightmare — and the start of a long-term romance.
The pair’s ordeal is the topic of a recent Netflix documentary “Longest Third Date,” out Tuesday.
“It was a crazy, surreal experience,” Robertson told The Post.
After 11 days, the resort they’d been staying at closed, forcing Robertson and Le to scramble for shelter at various Airbnb locations — including a wall-free treehouse where they’d to make use of the toilet in front of one another.
“You get real close real quick,” said Le, who had recently gotten out of a relationship and wasn’t searching for anything serious. “There was no hiding in any way.”
Boredom also brought them closer — physically.
“If you’re stuck together there’s not much else to do but drink and f–k,” says Le within the doc.
At one point, she feared she is likely to be pregnant, which made their situation feel more dire than exciting — as did a near-fatal accident that ended with their rental automotive in a lagoon.
“I used to be like we now have to get back home,” Le says within the doc. “It’s not fun anymore.”
They were originally set to depart on June 2, but that flight was canceled.
Ultimately, they made it home later that month via a government-sponsored flight to Houston. From Texas, they were capable of get a flight back to NYC.
By then, they were a pair.
A month after their arrival home, Le moved into Robertson’s apartment in Hoboken, NJ.
In June 2021, they celebrated their 1-year anniversary by getting a blue French bulldog they named Banks.
The three of them now live together on the Lower East Side. Robertson and Le don’t have any plans to marry — yet.
“We’ve enjoyed slowing things down a bit,” said Robertson. “It’s been fun to only hang around and do normal dating things that we missed out on within the early stages.”
However the lovebirds don’t regret their rushed romance, and advise others to contemplate a crazy third date.
“Do it!” said Robertson. “So long as those first two dates are good, do it.”
