It all began on New Year’s Eve, 2021, in Dallas, Texas. Though AJ and I had crossed paths at college—thanks to mutual friends—we hadn’t truly known each other. My house of 6 girls decided we wanted to see the UC bowl game, so we pulled together the little money we had in college and drove the 16 hours from Cincinnati to Dallas. We barely knew anyone going, but we reached out beforehand, and that’s when Kevin, AJ’s best friend, invited us to hangout with them. We drove through the night, taking turns behind the wheel, and arrived at the same motel—Motel 6—at the exact same time as Kevin’s car. It was fate. The next day we met up at a tailgate that Kevin invited us to. That’s when I really got to know AJ—laughing and cheering for UC. After the game, we kept the night going at Texas Live, where the ball drop was pure magic. Kevin insisted I should kiss AJ at midnight, to what I replied with “Only if he kisses me.” As the countdown reached zero, AJ and I both leaned in. When we got back home, we stayed friends for months and really got to know each other better without any pressure. But after a couple of months, we both knew we wanted to see where this could go. AJ took me on a first date to Two Cities Pizza, and from that moment, the rest is history.