Cherry Lockwood narrates the story of how she met and fell in love with Ned Lockwood, her hairdresser Hazel's brother-in-law. Ned was a beloved high school math teacher known for his energetic, almost dance-like presence in the classroom—a quality that extended to every aspect of his life. He had studied mathematics at Sydney University at the same time as Cherry, and he claimed to have fallen in love with her during a lecture on the Kronecker delta when she wordlessly lent him a pen. Cherry dismisses this claim, noting they didn't speak and that Ned was engaged to someone else at the time, while she herself was infatuated with Jack Murphy.

Their first date was the movie When Harry Met Sally. Ned couldn't sit still or stop talking during the film, so Cherry sent him out to walk around the foyer while she finished watching. She reflects on how, even on that first date, she felt she already knew him and understood how to handle his restless energy. Years later, Ned managed to sit through all of Titanic, though he grew agitated about Rose not sharing her door with Jack. Cherry told him afterward she would have shared her door with him.

After the movie, Ned greeted Cherry in the foyer with a dramatic, romantic kiss—bending her backward as if it were the end of a war—and declared "When Cherry met Ned." He then took her hand, rushing to a Nepalese restaurant where he'd convinced the staff to hold their perfect window table. They sat down, started talking, and never stopped. Cherry describes Ned as the most exasperating, impatient, intelligent, funny, curious, and intense man she'd known. On their first wedding anniversary, Ned gave her a gold brooch inscribed with the Kronecker delta symbol, which Cherry has worn every single day since.