Cara's Perspective: He was a bartender at the Cherry Creek Grill. I was a hostess at the Cherry Creek Grill. We attended the same church. We had a few mutual friends. I remember first meeting him at the restaurant and thinking he is charming, genuine, and down to earth. I could see us becoming good friends. Fast forward 14 months, besides some sassy banter on shifts and quick hellos after church, we were still just friendly acquaintances. Meanwhile, since I was used to friend zoning guys and staying clear of dating, I created a 2023 new years resolution where I would force myself to go on one date every quarter. This forced me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to achieve a quarterly quota (shoutout to my friends in sales for the idea). The first 3 quarterly dates came and went with no notable significance. On November 16, 2023, I was toward the end of a restaurant shift when I stopped to say hello to Tyler, who was sitting at a table finishing up client notes before he started his evening bartending shift. We had a brief convo before Tyler said something to the effect of "Sorry I am asking you on shift, but I would love to take you on a date sometime." Quite flustered and caught off guard, and realizing I had not yet met my 4th quarter quota as the holiday season was approaching, I bluntly and matter of factly replied "Sure, you can be my quota." Then quickly proceeded to nervous ramble in an attempt to dig myself out of the hole I just created. Quite the smooth talker here. After our first few dates of being unsure how I felt, I was thinking about calling it quits when Tyler unexpectedly got fired from the restaurant. Since I didn't want to end things right after he got fired, I decided to give it a few more weeks. In that time, I developed a crush on him; eventually I decided to give dating him a try. Turns out, he would become my best friend and forever quota. Tyler's perspective: Our story actually starts way before Cara initially thought it did. Back in August of 2022, both Cara and I were doing the online dating thing. Most millennials and gen zers can tell you how terrible this experience is. For a few days in row, Cara's profile came across mine on Hinge. At first, I didn't send her a message because her location was set as Fort Collins, and I didn't want to do anything long distance. However, after the 3rd or 4th time I saw her profile, I decided she was cute enough and said something about her faith in her profile, so I decided to send her a message. I assure you, whatever I sent her was more than likely charming, humorous, witty, and the perfect amount of romantic. Cara, however, did not seem to think so because she did not even message me back and likely immediately hit the "x" button. Fast forward two months, and there was a new greeter who started working at the Cherry Creek Grill. I quickly realized this was Cara, the girl I had sent a message to on Hinge two months previously. I had no idea if she remembered me, but I didn't want to creep her out, so I certainly wasn't about to say anything. Fast forward again, but this time a little bit more than a year later. I had gone on a few dates with various girls, but nobody that I was exceptionally interested in. It was at this point I realized I've had a crush on Cara for over a year, so I decided it was time to make a move in person. While Cara initially said, "sure," all I heard was that I was getting the opportunity. Much like Rico Dowdle, on my 2025 fantasy football team, I thankfully didn't waste my opportunity. Cara might have needed a few months to figure things out, I was pretty certain from the start that this was the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I was so certain of this that I wrote her a letter telling her such after only about a month of dating. Now, this would have freaked her out, so I knew I had to play this one close to the chest. I was excited to finally get to give it to her on the day I proposed.