For all the romance readers, “friends to lovers” is such a cliche that we hate to even use those words, but they are pretty true here. Nia and Charles have known each other since 2018, really 2017, if you count our initial swipe on the dating app that shall not be named. Nia’s first impression of him was that he was quite handsome, with a joyful smile and kind eyes. Oh, and he “liked” her first. A good sign and an ego boost. Charles’ first impression of her: “heart eyes!” We had our first “date” in early 2018, bonding over boozy milkshakes, the highs and lows of being an only child, and various nerdy interests (Rubik’s cube anyone?). Nia and Charles both had a sense that they had met someone special, but neither was sure that the timing was right. They had many other “date, but not” dates, where Charles impressed Nia by playing impossibly beautiful classical guitar, tricked her into watching Star Wars, and stayed on her mind as “quite an interesting guy.” When Charles finally got up the courage to ask Nia on an official(!) date, they went to Topgolf. Charles, being a leftie, brought his own golf clubs, and Nia didn’t quite know what to make of that. Nia was nervous, but Charles made her feel relaxed, and the vibe was easy and fun. Charles was just happy to be there with such a lovely woman. He felt the same even after she effortlessly won multiple rounds of giant Connect 4. Here, we have to fast-forward a bit. After a series of dates and hangouts, Charles and Nia decided to engage in “mutual ghosting” because clearly neither of them has mastered the art of communication, and both felt it would be easier to simply pull back a bit. Don’t blame us, we were young and dating is hard, ok? But the universe would not leave them alone. In a series of encounters where Nia was highly convinced that she was being stalked by Charles, they continued to run into each other all over Dallas. At coffee shops, churches, bookstores, and even downtown on a random Friday when both of them should’ve been working in separate cities. For my out of towners, Dallas is not a small place. This is nearly impossible. So they took it as a sign to remain friends. Connecting over movie nights, music and old game shows, they maintained a friendship for nearly 3 years. Things fell quiet around 2020, when both parties were seeing other people. And yet, whenever they communicated, something just clicked. Nia remembers actively thinking “I wish my relationship would feel like this” and then also thinking “wait” and “ohh, duh.” Charles recalls saying to himself “Am I actually ready for anything serious?” and immediately replacing those thoughts with “I’m ready to step up, because she might be the one” each time they hung out. Naturally, he did absolutely nothing about this. (We do get better at this talking thing, I swear.) They reconnected once more on a strange night at a brewery, and went on a multi-stop adventure to find dessert. Finally landing at a random Chili’s, they split a lava cake, and Nia looked over the table on a chocolate high and thought “I think I want to date this guy.” Not too much later they had a big talk over a seafood boil (the only way to do things, really) and Charles expressed his feelings for Nia and desire to pursue a relationship when and if she felt ready. Nia agreed, possibly because of the free crab legs, but there are some things we’ll just never know. The months ahead would include navigating job & health changes, deepening faith, and many hours of fun that transitioned an “on and off” friendship to a very “on” kind of love. They both said “I love you” at the dawn of the new year in January 2022, and got engaged under lanterns in the night sky in October 2023. Over time, Charles and Nia have vastly improved their communication and currently have no plans to ghost each other ever again. But they do still enjoy a good chain restaurant lava cake, spontaneous meetups, and ditching work on Fridays. Some things never change.