Alex and Mike met during the spring semester of their sophomore year of college at Texas Christian University. They met at TCU Catholic while serving as leaders for their mutual friend, Danielle's, new freshman outreach program called Rise. Alex and Mike began spending a lot of time together, whether it was at the Newman Center, at on-campus comedy shows (that Mike later revealed he had pretended to enjoy and only attended because Alex would be there), or studying together in the library, and ultimately became fast friends. Little did they know, they had both developed crushes on the other. On the last day of the semester, finals were finished, and Mike and Alex were having dinner with some friends, including Danielle and her mom, Amy. Long story short, Amy decided to speed things up, revealing to Mike and Alex that they both had feelings for each other. The rest of the night was filled with awkward hand holding and butterflies, but the next morning Mike moved back to Naperville, IL and Alex moved back to Lafayette, LA for the summer.

Mike and Alex spent the summer of 2019 FaceTiming most nights, getting to know each other, and even had a couple impromptu dinners together in Chicago when Alex was visiting the city with her dad, Tiger, for a work trip! As Alex and Tiger were leaving Chicago to head home, Tiger told her that Mike must really like her. When she asked why, he told her that the train Mike had taken into the city for dinner two nights in a row, which Alex assumed was at most a 20 minute ride, was actually about an hour and a half each way.

Mike officially asked Alex to be his girlfriend on September 13, 2019. They spent the next few months going on dates, attending TCU football games, spending time at the Newman Center, working out with Mike’s roommates, Kyle and Kaden, at the TCU Rec Center, and (if Alex could drag him there) attending a couple CrossFit classes. Over fall break, Mike traveled to Lafayette to meet Alex’s family, experience his first LSU football game, and eat a concerning amount of gumbo. Alex traveled to Naperville to visit Mike's home town over spring break and barely made it back to Louisiana before the country shut down because of COVID-19. Mike and Alex spent the next 6 months apart, keeping in touch with (a lot) of FaceTimes and a couple surprise visits to Louisiana and Colorado. They were re-united for their senior year of college, which was filled with Game of Thrones, trips to The Pub on Wednesday nights, Merida house parties, and countless nights staying up chatting with Mike’s roommates. After graduating from TCU, Alex moved to Houston, TX for law school and Mike moved to College Station, TX for medical school, and they would spend the next 3 years of their relationship doing long distance. While difficult, long distance only made their relationship stronger and Alex and Mike cherished the time they spent together even more. Weekend visits were spent cooking new recipes, trying new restaurants, attempting new activities and hobbies, and, of course, lots of studying together.

After graduating law school, Alex moved to Dallas, where Mike had been attending medical school for the past year. They were finally in the same city again, and their drives to visit each other quickly changed from 4.5 hours to 4 minutes. After years of long distance, Alex and Mike made an effort to see each other almost every day and enjoyed their time exploring Dallas, watching Suits, going to Mass together on Sunday’s, taking trips back to Fort Worth, playing pickleball, and even training for the Austin Marathon together. On April 26, 2025, after five and a half years of dating, Mike surprised Alex and proposed to her under the oak trees at her high school, the Academy of the Sacred Heart. 364 days later, they will be married at the exact same place!