at a Massachusetts theater, but four years and some-50 letters later, the pair fell out of touch and went their separate ways.

Or so they thought. In fact, both studied acting in London only a year apart, then moved to Brooklyn, New York, where they lived a few blocks apart, worked as actors and audiobook narrators, and even shared the same voiceover agent.

The passage of time: Piper, now 35, and Gabriel, 36, started exchanging letters at the suggestion of mutual friends in 1994, when Piper was 14 Gabriel was 15. Pictured, the couple now

Precious: They were both in relationships at the time, only met in person once, but bonded over their shared acting ambitions. Pictured, Piper's letters, which Gabriel kept for 14 years

'We took the same subway every day,'her old letters

Joined: The night the couple were reunited in their shared Brooklyn nieghborhood, in June 2011

Actors: The newlyweds have since discovered they'd shared 'many' mutual friends for years without ever crossing paths. Pictured in 2013, at the Tennessee Shakespeare Co. where they performed in Hamlet together

'I wrote to her just like, "Hey, do you want to go on a date?"' he relays. 'And a second later I get a message back and it's like, "Gabe! It’s Piper! It's your penpal!"

Gabriel's screen name was his real name, and Piper's only way of knowing who he was, since they barely knew each other by face. Both were utterly 'shocked' and 'dumbfounded,' but met a few days later for a casual neighborhood date.

That very night, they headed back to Gabriel's