on a warm pandemic fall night, after a week or two of messages on a dating app, chris found himself excited, thinking, "i might actually meet a quality match on this." brittney found herself thinking, "am i really going to go on my first online date? what if he’s a serial killer?" they’d established a mutual affinity for gardening, church, diy stuff (oh maybe that was just chris), and probably some other things. chris never brought gifts to dates, but he had the serendipitous idea to buy a small plant and bring it to the agreed-upon hyde park restaurant near her church. it did not have indoor seating (cough cough covid) but he found a noodle place the next block over and was early enough to make the pivot (he’s never been early since). due to her being strategically late or her impeccable sense of direction, he had time to get in, get settled, and hide the plant under the table. after some time, a cute black girl strolled in who looked strikingly like the pictures in the profile. when he made eye contact and stood up with a hopeful look she beamed back with a big beautiful smile and greeted him with a hug. the conversation flowed easily, she was touched by the plant, and he decided someone who is vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free could maybe work (again that smile). he talked her into a walk afterward, and as they neared promontory point by the lake she made sure to share her location with friends (again - what if he was a serial killer?), especially after he had the bright idea of a fun get-to-know-you question along the lines of, “what could you see yourself doing to make it onto the front page of a newspaper?” they parted ways with another hug, him expressing that he’d like to spend more time together and her agreeing. he walked back to his car thinking, "this was too good to be true," and wondering if she actually meant it. despite the conventional wisdom of not asking her out the next day right away, he actually did that by asking for TWO dates the following weekend. kayaking was declined (why does this guy keep wanting to get me near water???), but after surviving some awkward text miscommunications (“You want to be friends?”) she allowed him to come along for a visit to her favorite gardening shop and they found a roof deck for apps and a drink. that was the first place she imagined beating him in arm wrestling. the rest is history.

after allergies and illness threw a wrench in the original plan, chris knew it was time to think of another approach since brittney’s mother, karen, made it clear she couldn’t keep secrets long. it just so happened that chris had a photoshoot for a real estate magazine doing an article on him (he’s kinda a big deal) and when explaining to the photographer that his family status would hopefully be changing, she asked “do you want to propose during the shoot?” so brittney was told she could pose as a client, and they could probably get some fun couple shots out of the session as well. chris wanted his e-bike in the shoot and so the three all went to ping-tom park which has a wonderful backdrop of the chicago skyline. he managed to covertly pull the ring box from his things as they walked ahead of the photographer, and after her attention was drawn to the skyline she turned back to chris on a knee with ring and box (fortunately pointing the right way up -whew). after she said, “are you serious?” about 5-10 times, he eventually heard, “yes!” and she allowed him to put the ring on her finger. chris then rode his e-bike back while she cried in the car with the photographer, and after calling some friends and family, chris let her know that he’d actually made volunteering plans a few weeks before but would take her to dinner the NEXT night (lol).