He was not her type. He was too old for her. She would never give him her number.

And then she did. And he called her. And they fell in love.

He called three times a day for a week before she finally answered. Alena Kastsiuk picked up the phone that May morning in 2011 only to yell at him for waking her.

“How about sushi?” he responded. Ms. Kastsiuk, a waitress who had worked other low-paying jobs, had little money for such luxuries. Her refrigerator was empty, so she agreed.

The sushi date lasted five and a half hours. Although he was almost twice her age, Ms. Kastsiuk, a film directing major from Belarus struggling to find her way into New York’s film industry, discovered much in common with the Russian pianist across from her. The pianist, Vladimir Spitsberg, had arrived in New York State more than 20 years earlier, worked as a digital media arts instructor at Touro College in Manhattan and played with his band, Gypsy Fun Trio, at a Russian restaurant and piano bar in Midtown Manhattan.