“I soon learned that Josh threw the whole party just to see Anna,” Ms. Kloots-Larsen said. “Then when the party was over, Anna said ‘I’d like to stay a while,’ and I smiled as I left because I guessed immediately what was going on. I was O.K. with it. I’d known Josh forever, and he’s a great guy.”

The couple’s first date (at the Metropolitan Museum, given their mutual enthusiasm for art) was followed by pizza at Lombardi’s on Spring Street, and their first kiss in the taxi on the way back to her apartment.

“I was head over heels about her,” Mr. Jay said. “And we spent every day together the rest of that week. But then, of course, I had to go to Japan to perform.”

It was prophetic. They dated seriously for five years, and during that time Mr. Jay, based in New York, traveled to some 70 countries. Ms. Kloots studied at the American University of Paris and then got a job in London as a saleswoman for the Nanz Company, an haute designer of architectural hardware for homes, offices and yachts.

“That time in London was very hard for us,” she said, “given the constant travel. So for a couple of months, we cooled off and experienced what it was like to go our own ways. Well, neither of us liked that very much.”

So, when Ms. Kloots had a chance to return to Manhattan, while continuing to work for Nanz, they became an item again.