Negrin and @NYTimesWordplay kept up their back-and-forth for an entire evening and most of the next day.
"I was unsure if @NYTimesWordplay would get back to me," Negrin told BuzzFeed News. "We've flirted before... sometimes I brag about the times that I finish the daily mini puzzles. They're always very snarky."
He said that despite their previous dalliances, he didn't expect such a "rapid escalation" of emotions.
"But I'm not surprised that they held their own. It comes from a real place."