We're getting Married!!

Amanda's Story:      This was a blind date set up by my friend (and maid of honor)/his step cousin. Gabe and I had been texting back and forth all week prior to us actually meeting. Talking with him was so easy and fun, I was pretty excited to meet him. Our first date was at Griffin Claw in Birmingham, which we had driven separately and met there. I first saw him in the parking lot, he was SOOO cute and nervous, awkwardly waving at me as he walked up to introduce himself. My first impression was how cute and kind he was. He seemed like such a sweet gentle man. I immediately really liked him. Gabe was SO nervous throughout the evening, at one point, his hard contact lens he was wearing just popped right out of his eye and into his hand! I could tell he was embarrassed and wasn't sure what to do, I remember smiling and telling him it was okay! I actually work in optics and I work with patients who wear contacts and teach classes on how to put in and take out soft lenses; I am more than used to these types of things. I remember how fun and easy the night was. Conversation flowed really well throughout the evening; we had tons of fun and laughing. I remember he smiled pretty much the whole evening, and I was thinking how cute he was. I knew after our date, and during, that I was very into him. Gabe's Story: We were texting for many days prior to meeting, and by that time I already knew I really liked her. She was very funny, responsive, listened to any random thought I had and shared a ton about herself too. I remember being nervous because it was my first date in almost a year. I remember parking at Griffin Claw, which was right down the road from my place so I was early, she was there shortly after, also early. She got out of a brand new Truck and I immediately thought “oh boy, well hopefully she’s not too into new cars because mine is not”. I remember we awkwardly hugged, mostly because of me, and then we walked inside. They surprisingly had a pretty long wait time, so I suggested we go to a different bar until the wait was up. I remember she was very direct and did not smile or laugh a lot, but she was very interested in what I had to say. When we spoke I could tell she was smart, ambitious and hard working, also most of the night she was very serious which funny enough at first had me thinking she may not be interested. We went back to Griffin Claw and tried tasting a flight of different local beers since this was a brewery. I remember while we were talking, my hard contact popped right out of my eye... I thought, “oh man, well there goes this date she’s going to think this is odd as hell” but she was actually very understanding, giggled and said "its okay I am in this line of work I’ve seen it before". We finished up there and then I think we were both not really done for the night so we got in my car, to which I basically tried to say I could get a new one but wanted to drive this one until the wheels fell off to which she said she did not care. We ended up driving around Royal Oak, and I explained I was here all the time because my best friend and cousin lived in one of the neighborhoods near here, we ended up finding the house that he and my aunt used to live in, then we found her old house she grew up in - which was actually pretty close to where I would’ve been a lot growing up. I remember we got stopped by a train passing by and for a split second I thought about kissing her, but decided to wait to see if she wanted to go on a second date before any of that. I drove her back to her truck parked at Griffin Claw, we hugged and I asked if she wanted to do this again. She said yes and frankly that was the first time I thought “oh she does like me at least enough to go out again so I did something right”. I remember I got right back home and immediately texted her for the next couple of hours and the following days up to when we met again for date two at a bowling alley.