In college, I met up with my friend Luke in West Campus to cash in our free Pluckers coupons and help him with his film class project. When I arrived at Pluckers, Luke was sitting with this good-looking dude named Edward. Edward was going to join us at Luke's apartment to work on his own film project. I don't remember much of our conversation that whole time (I'm sure shyness got the best of us), but I did later call him "Hot Edward" to my roommates. Flash forward to our friend Dew's birthday party in Spring 2013--at the same apartment where we did the film project. I was drinking wine with our friend Collin when Edward walks in. Luckily, wine had decreased the shyness enough to start talking with Edward and we hung out together the whole party. After that, Dew began bugging me about going out with Edward. Although I was still trying to play cool, I sneakily (not at all) invited Edward to meet me and Dew at my apartment, but then matchmaker Dew told us to drop him off at the movie theater. So, Edward and I spent the evening driving around Austin and hiking up to Mount Bonnell to look at the stars. I remember the conversation feeling so easy. After that evening, Edward finally asked me on an official date. And the rest is history!

Freshman year at UT in the Jester West (represent!) dormitory, I was in the crowded lobby doing my usual hobby of bringing a fistful of quarters to the Wendy's for Dollar Menu sustenance when the elevator doors opened and out walked the prettiest girl I'd ever seen wearing a coral dress. I remember just standing there and being like "whoa" and then she walked right past and left. Fast forward a year or so and I had learned that the girl from the elevator was friends with a few of my friends. One of them, Luke, was going to help me out with a film class project and told me to meet him at Pluckers so we could plan it all out. When I got there, it was her. The girl from the elevator. She was helping him with his project and then he would help me with mine and we would use Luke's apartment for both. I have no idea what I said or what she said, but I did learn she was dating some guy. I saw Brooke again not long after. I was waiting to do an interview at the Paramount during SXSW and felt a random tap on my arm. It was her, asking what all the hubbub was. "Oh, [enter celebrity name] is premiering a movie and I'm interviewing them." What a great look for me. You can't ask for a better time to be stopped by your crush than at a red carpet. Brief hug and then she was gone again. Fast forward a few weeks and my dear friends Jordan, Rachel, and myself found ourselves in West Campus during Round Up and probably one or two drinks deep (the timeline is fuzzy but I am sure we were all LDA compliant). At one point I text my friend Dew, to see what he was doing for his birthday. He had acquired some Yellowtail wine (his favorite) and was celebrating at his and Luke's apartment. I meandered over there and met Brooke again, among the guests. She was a bit less reserved and let slip a few times that she was single (bye dude lmao). We all hung out way into the night. Dew and her sneakily set up another hangout where it was just the two of us stargazing, and I got her number. Now, my memory says that I texted her a few days later but Brooke has gaslit me into believing it was a week or more. We went on our first date where we both ordered chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and mac n' cheese and then I took her back to my apartment where we watched Lincoln on Blu-ray and sat very far apart on the couch and I didn't say a word the whole time. After the movie, we stayed up til 4 am just talking before I dropped her off at her apartment. Fast forward a decade-ish and I'm having to write all this down for a website because we're getting married.