The romance takes root; "It was all for free"; cohabitation in the co-op

pivotal · B.S. 2001, Columbus Day onward

• When: B.S. 2001, freshman fall (the approach is a Columbus Day function); cohabitation follows by season's end (late 2001)
• What: Joelle approached Orin at a Columbus Day function with a punctured football for her Daddy's autograph; Orin — for once unstrategized — confessed why punting moved him: "upwards of 30,000 voices, souls, voicing approval as One Soul," a "coital moan… the voice of what might as well be God." The romance "took bilateral root at a distance, during games… entirely through stylized repetitive motions." By season's end Orin moved with Joelle into a co-op (see Dating notes: scene 068 says "an East Cambridge co-op"; scenes 062/150/179 have it a Back Bay brownstone co-op "provided nearly gratis by Jim" — cite both). This is "the only really cardiac-grade romantic relationship of Orin's life." On one of their early dates at big-budget commercial films, Orin blurted that it felt strange to sit beside a girl prettier than the actresses on screen, and Joelle punched him hard in the arm in a way that "just about drove him wild" (n101 p. 1004). WHO APPROACHED WHOM is itself disputed: scene 068's narration has Joelle approaching, but per n307 "Joelle van Dyne and Orin Incandenza each remember themselves as the original approachee" — cite both as written (see Dating notes).