Heck Yes We Do! We're excited to celebrate with y'all! The countdown until our forever is on.

Jojo was working at a bar called Perxactly's on a Friday night in August. (Karaoke night) Ben's usual spot was not doing karaoke that night because they had just switched to one week off/one week on. (COVID) Ben decided he would go check out Perxactly's. He showed up early to get some food and scope out the place. Jojo saw him come into the bar. She asked what he wanted to drink and he nervously ordered a Busch Light bottle. Later he got the whiskey cowboy burger w/sidewinders, which would become his regular choice unbeknownst to him. Jojo was tasked with doing the dishes by her manager right before karaoke started at 9pm. She went to the kitchen to work on dishes when she heard the DJ call the name "Ben" to start the night off. She continued working on the dishes, minding her own business. "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. Jojo was stunned when the voice she heard sounded just like Johnny Cash! She threw everything back in the sink, wiped her hands, and walked over to peak out of the kitchen to see who was singing. She was even more shocked when she saw that it was the super nervous and shy guy that she had been serving a couple hours before. He had transformed into a different guy, ten times more confident and outgoing. Jojo went back into the kitchen to finish up the dishes but she couldn't stop thinking about Ben. Around 11:30pm her boss walked into the kitchen and told her she could clock out for the night. Jojo decided to make a plan. She clocked out and sat at a large table in the corner of the bar. Ben was watching her, he thought she was leaving but the night had only just begun for Jojo. She put a couple songs in for karaoke before going to sit down. Ben waited for a moment and them came over to Jojo at the large table. He said, "I have three questions for you." "Is that so? And what would these questions be?" she asked. "How old are you?" "18." "Are you single?" "Yes," she replied while grinning at him. "Do I even have a chance?" "If you play your cards right," she teased. They were chatting and Ben had just pulled a chair to the edge of the table to sit next to Jojo when her dad walks in from the back of the bar. Ben had his phone out to get Jojo’s number but quickly put it away as her dad approached the table. Rick (Jojo’s dad) asked her why she wasn’t working and she told him that she got to clock off early. She decided to hangout for a little while and sing a little bit. While she was talking to her dad, Jojo proceeded to rip off the top of a guest check paper and write her number on it. She went to pass it to Ben while still not trying to make it obvious and maintain the conversation with her dad. When Jojo reached over to make the pass Ben had turned his chair away from her to make it seem like he wasn’t just chatting her up, Jojo thought he had the paper so she let go and it dropped onto the floor. Instead leaving it for a while Ben bent over and immediately picked up making it so obvious. Jojo was laughing at the ridiculousness of what they both just tried to do so she just immediately introduced Rick and Ben. Things went well and they all hung out for a bit, listening to the karaoke singers and singing themselves. Ben always does the heckle “FREE BIRD!” After someone sings and he did it to Jojo. She didn’t realize it was Ben that said that and she said, “okay, I’ll do it.” So she put herself in for it. It was awful but Ben was surprised that she did it. It got to be about 12-1am and Rick said he was going home for the night. Around 2am bartenders kicked them out of the bar, “don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” So they went outside to the table in the parking lot outside of the patio fence for the bar. Jojo checked her phone and saw she had a message from an unknown number. It read, “Salutations M’lady.” It was Ben.

One of the karaoke regulars followed Ben and Jojo out of the bar to the table and sat down with them. He knew Ben and Jojo knew him but he didn’t really know her. We will call him Cory for the sake of this story. Cory starts talking to us so now instead of talking to each other, which is what they wanted to do, they had to talk to Cory. Ben would try to change the subject when Cory would start talking about himself to make it into something him and Jojo wanted to talk about. Which worked for a little while but then Cory grew impatient and had revealed why he really stuck around for all those hours. Cory turned to Jojo, interrupting Ben mid sentence to ask if she would be free to go out with him sometime. She said, “I am always working or busy with family, thanks for asking though.” To which he responded with, “oh… okay… I think I’m gonna head out.” Cory stood up and left like a sad puppy dog. Ben and Jojo looked at each other in disbelief and when he was far enough away they started laughing. They couldn’t not believe that they have been chatting all night, clearly digging each other and Cory had the nerve to try to get between that and steal Jojo away from Ben. (Cory and Ben were friends too.) After laughing and talking about how ridiculous that was Jojo got a chill. Ben had mentioned that he had a blanket in his car and asked if she wanted him to go grab it. She accepted because it was starting to get really chilly outside. When he got back with the blanket and was covering Jojo’s shoulders, Jojo’s boss and manager walk out of the bar after cleaning and everything. It is 3-4am. They tell her to stay out of trouble and remind her that she is being watched by the camera in the parking lot. She didn’t care because she was going to do anything that she would want to hide. Jojo and Ben sit and talk for hours about their lives, hobbies, careers, dreams, and family. Ben started get cold to so they shared the blanket and Jojo said she should probably get back home. Ben agreed that he needed to leave because he had to be up early to meet with his friends. He walked her to her car and and they stood talking next to her car for what seemed like minutes and then the sun started rising and they looked at the time. It was 6-7am. They had just talked for over 7 hours and they didn’t want to leave. Eventually around 7am they both managed to part ways. Even though they just met it felt like they had known each other for an eternity and they have been together ever since.