Conor and I met when we were in high school. He was a junior and I was in my senior year. We didn't meet at school, but rather through the local music scene. I was in a band with my friend Ian called The City Rats (LOL). Ian introduced me to Colin as someone we could play music with. Colin might not have brought the pizzazz the band needed to propel us out of Ian's parent's basement, but he did introduce me to Conor. I don't remember the exact day we met but we became friends on Myspace, as one did in 2008, and eventually started hanging out without our mutual friends. I had a huge crush on him (who wouldn't!). I never made my move, as he had a cute scene girlfriend at the time, and honestly I did not have nearly enough confidence at that age to be so bold. Nothing ever went past friendship, and after a couple of years, we lost touch.

Flash forward to 2017, I'm working at El Chucho and a group of three people sit at one of the high tops across from the bar. Seeing Maddie immediately jogged my memory and I told the server who had their section "I think I know that girl." He told me to go over and say hi, but I didn't want to be weird- "nah, she probably doesn't remember me." He comes back about 30-45 minutes later and asks me to pour him 3 shots of tequila, takes them, and brings them over to his table. I see him chatting to them for a bit, and then he points over at me and next thing I see is Maddie waving awkwardly at me with a look on her face like "who the hell is that?" before slowly turning to one recognition. I waved awkwardly back and said "it's Conor!" and committing to spending the rest of the night staring at my shoes, embarrassed. But Maddie came up after their meal and said it was nice to see me and gave me her business card. I texted her a few days later- I still have that card in my wallet to this day.