I (Krista) was visiting a friend in Midland who brought me to Maru Sushi for dinner. Chris caught my eye as I was sitting at the sushi bar and he brought me a side of spicy mayo (in true Krista fashion), but I didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t that moment that we connected, but later on when I got bored and was swiping on a dating app that I came across Chris, and recognized him from earlier that night. We “matched”, and I began frequently going to Maru and sitting at the sushi bar to talk with Chris when I was in town or passing through. We became friends, went on our first date, and then we immediately went back to being just friends (l o l - I personally was a mess at this point in my life). It wasn’t until about 5-6 months later, during the early days of Covid, after I fought through a serious health trauma/hospitalization, which subsequently lead me to experience significant mental growth, when I came to my senses and realized what a serious catch Chris is. It took some (and by some I mean a lot of) chasing on my part. But, I finally caught him with my great personality and outlandish sense of humor. 😇 Neither of us were working because of the pandemic. So we stayed up every night until 6 AM on video calls. We would watch the Office together and count down to hit play at the exact same time from afar. We would play games on our phones. We would vulnerably share our pasts as we got to know each other beneath the surface level. Eventually, we decided to break quarantine to see each other. This is a time when restaurants were still closed, so we graduated to playing board games together in person and eating take out for date nights. We did long distance for a year, and then bought our first home in Midland in June 2021. In October 2023, we got engaged. Now, we’ve been together for almost 5 years. Almost 5 years of trust, respect, patience, compromise, selflessness, memories, friendship, bickering, and most importantly, love. 💕