I was over at my friend, Michelle’s, house on October 11, 2021. The two of us were on a mission trying to find someone in particular on Hinge and we were both frantically swiping on our individual profiles. I paused when Dominic’s flashed across my screen. I remember three pictures from his profile: one of him abroad, one of him jumping from a rope swing into a body of water, and one of him holding a puppy. Obviously, the puppy had me hooked. I swiped right and immediately messaged him, “That puppy is as big as your bicep.” I read it aloud to Michelle as I sent it and we fell into a fit of laughter. “I’ll never hear from this kid again,” I said, convinced that my pick-up line was going to fall short… but it didn’t. “That’s not even my dog,” was part of his almost instant response. My jaw fell to the floor and, again, the two of us girls burst into laughter. He continued to message me, almost nonstop to get to know me, to the point where I was questioning if it was all real. “Is this normal?” I asked Marisa, my coworker, one day as we were prepping diets. “Is what normal?” She responded, confused. “How much he’s texting me during the day? Isn’t he busy with work?” I was flustered. Marisa smirked. “Alexis, that means he likes you.” Sure enough, he asked me out on our first date and we scheduled it for November 5, 2021 at Bartaco in Stamford - a nice in-between location from his place in Suffern and mine in Norwalk. That night, I sent my location to two friends and did my best to control my breathing. I stood outside the restaurant doors, my hands shoved in my coat pockets, trying not to panic. “Alexis?” I turned to find Dominic, also with his hands shoved in his coat pockets, trying not to panic. The rest is history.

I was on Hinge and came across Alexis’ profile and thought, “Wow, she is very good looking and seems to have similar interests as I do,” so I swiped right (first) on her profile. It's funny because we aren't sure how our profiles even showed up on each other's app since we were both out of our set ranges. We ended up matching and started to talk through the app until we exchanged phone numbers. We started to get to know each other right in the middle of hunting season so we had a lot in common to talk about. Our first date was at Bartaco in Stamford since it was a good distance for the both of us to drive to. As soon as we sat down and started talking, we hit it off. We would end up going on a few more dates together and then in December, Alexis asked me how she should introduce me to her co-workers and if she could call me her boyfriend. I was under the impression we were already dating, but apparently, I needed to make it “official.” So, on December 22, 2021, it was made official that we were boyfriend and girlfriend. The rest is history.