Anita grew up with Tara in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. They first locked eyes across the jewelry counter at K-Mart while shopping with their grandparents – and knew it was meant to be. Through mix tapes, matching outfits, and phone calls that went for hours on end, they have been best friends for 27 years.
Nirali and Tara went to Wellesley College together. Dancing in their first college Indian cultural show led to scouring Boston for dance parties for 4 years. They first recognized they really had a problem when they started plotting how to leave college to join the cast of Stomp!
Asad went to high school with Tara, but they became buds while living and working a few blocks away from each other in Manhattan. Asad supported every one of Tara’s crazy career plans, provided wake-up calls during their constant late nights at work, and encouraged her quest to eat at every Indian restaurant in New York.
Bethany served in the Peace Corps with Tara. She and the rest of the "Pack" grew close traveling across numerous regions of Senegal and West Africa, and winning the party scene in Dakar every time. Bethany and Tara are now the traveling portion of the Pack, which mostly lives in New York. Now, NYC always wins.
Lilly Kan went to Hopkins with Tara, and actually hosted her on her living room sofa for some weeks. They now get to jet around the country together for their jobs, which makes professionalism a constant struggle. If you meet Lilly at the wedding and leave thinking you are besties, please remember that Tara was there first.
Coco is Tara’s law school sweetheart, and they met by spotting each other across a courtyard during orientation and haven’t stopped talking since. The courtyard has become a 5-minute drive between their homes, and their conversations have gone from how crazy law school was to how crazy their adorable dogs are.
Vani served valiantly as Tara’s roommate for 5 years, enduring her escapades in law school and as a "young professional." As Tara’s life coach, Vani was responsible for encouraging Tara to go out with Pete Holiday in the first place, so you can attribute this whole thing to her.
Despite growing up in different states, Hilary has been one of Pete's best friends since High School. They met in the middle of a forest (at a leadership retreat) and shortly thereafter Hilary endured Pete driving her through a torrential downpour. Having survived that, it's no wonder she's seen seen everything, good and bad, for 20 years.
Abby and Pete lived in the same dorm building freshman year, where she accidentally interpreted his "I'm listening to you intently" face as a "I can't believe you'd say something so stupid face" and prompty avoided him for six months. Once they sorted that out, they were inseparable. From early moring trips to the airport to emergency ladybug plagues to weekly dinners, Pete and Abby have been close ever since.
There is no better person to nearly get kicked out of an international community service organization with than Manny. In college, but from opposite sides of the country, Pete and Manny created an unofficial version of the website of a club they were both in. This did not go over well with the people who were being paid to make the official version. In terms of trouble-making and fun, he's Pete's go-to guy.
Charlsie and Pete met on the internet (it's a long story) and despite having never lived in the same place, they talk regularly, mostly about how they need to get their lives together. She's is also responsible for the vast majority of Pete's good relationship decisions, regularly talking him out of doing and saying not-so-smart things.
On the day Pete and Chandresh met, they pranked Tara so hard and so well that Pete wasn't really sure she was going to forgive him. This seems to have been the basis for a beautiful friendship, but Tara is still a little skeptical every time she hears the two of them giggling about something.
Jim and Pete somehow get along really well despite Jim being a die-hard Texas Longhorns fan (nobody's perfect). He's always up for a party and has excellent taste in Whiskey (these two things are not unrelated). Basically: he's the catalyst for basically all of the fun things that Pete gets into.