“One of the first things he tells me is that he has no interest in a relationship, and that he was pretty much calling as a favor to his uncle, because when an elder in Nigeria asks you to do something, you just do it,” Ms. Sanders said.

They proceeded to chat for a while and emailed each other periodically. He eventually asked for her phone number and began texting her, and by early October 2017, they were chatting on the phone.

“It had really turned into a pretty nice friendship,” Mr. Umoumoh said. “We even started giving each other dating advice.”

Ms. Sanders began to see Mr. Umoumoh in a different light “when he began talking about his personal life and the failed relationships he was a part of,” she said. “He was the first guy I ever knew who did not place all of the blame on the women he had broken up with, choosing instead to put a lot of the blame squarely on his shoulders, and I admired the fact that he was honest and mature enough to admit that.”

A world away, Mr. Umoumoh’s admiration and feelings for Ms. Sanders were also blossoming.

“Despite the distance between us, we had so many things in common, especially the fact that we have a very strong Christian faith,” he said. “Every conversation was better than the one before, and the one thing I really enjoyed about talking to her was that she let me be myself.”

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