It all started on Tinder. Yep. The cringey dating app most young adults use for a short term fling. Brooke was working night shift as a CNA at the local hospital when her work friends downloaded the app as a joke. Fast forward a few hours later, after she was off work, she decided she was going to look around on the app to see what all the fuss was about. After taking a nap, she woke up to a message from a young man with dark hair and glasses, asking where she worked nights. (Her bio on Tinder said “My sleep schedule sucks, because I work night shift”). After a few very short messages from Brooke, Brandon asks her for her phone number, which she gives him. Brandon sent her a message and received no response for hours. Why? Well, Brooke dropped/broke her phone while shopping at Lowes with her mom, and had to get a new one afterward. As soon as she got her new phone, she texted Brandon to apologize for the delay. A few messages later, he asked her if he could take her to dinner sometime, because there was a place in Kinston his coworkers told him about. She knew he meant the Boiler Room. After looking at their schedules and Brooke looking Brandon up on social media to make sure he existed, they discovered the only night they would be able to would be that night: Sunday July 9, 2017. Ironically, Brooke was supposed to work that night, but ended up choosing to stay home earlier in the day due to the unit being overstaffed. A few hours later, Brooke assured her mom that it was just a dinner date, and at most, she’d be gone about two hours. When they met at the Boiler Room, conversations and laughs came easily, and neither wanted the date to end. Kinston is a pretty small place with very little to do, so they went to get a Sno-Cone, and did what everyone in Kinston does— walked around Neuse Sport Shop. After lapping the store twice, they decided it was time to go home. It’s been history ever since.