So I got to work a little late that day and we had our new sales team already in training, and I remember going behind my desk and seeing John from a distance leaning into this conference room and not gonna lie, thinking to myself, "who is that?!" Being the office manager I knew everybody, so I knew he must have been one of the new sales executives and just figured/assumed he didn't live here because most of the sales team traveled to HQ for training. So, I went about my day, and he says when he walked by my desk I POPPED up and announced myself in a very loud and high pitched voice, "Hi, my name's Christina!" I don't know if that's true...probably :) We had small talk by my desk throughout the week. I remember he helped me put out Roti one day for lunch, which he now jokes he did because he was hungry, and not an excuse to talk to me. I honestly thought he was just being nice! But not gonna lie, I was totally crusing on him. So I came up with this grand scheme with my coworker to make him a 'SWAG bag'. I made it seem like I was making one for everyone, but I didn't, just for him, ha! I gave it to him and he ends up "forgetting it" which I told myself he did on purpose so he would have to talk to me again. I've since learned, he forgot it just cause he forgot it. So I emailed him letting him know next time he's in the area to swing by the office. Fast forward to our PJ's and Cereal day at the office that next Friday (yes, you read that correctly), he "couldn't find parking" (again, so he says...) so I emailed him back letting him know to just text me when he's out front and I'll run down to meet him. Note how I slyly slip in my phone number there. Also note, in this week, I found out he in fact does not live out of state like I assumed, and lives in Chicago. In my mind, okay, this guy lives here, I'm totally going to pursue this. I ended up asking him to grab a drink in the neighborhood since we both live within minutes of each other. We ended up going out on two dates in February 2020, which were AMAZING! I hadn't felt like that in a long long LONG time. But, we both, without saying it, wanted to avoid office drama, and people all up in our business (which they were lol) since we work together so we just didn't continue dating. Then Covid happened, we went our seprate ways, did our thing...Fast Forward to Fall 2020. John slid into my DMs. I was on IG all the time because I ended up getting laid off from the job where we met at and started my own business, and social media was how I marketed myself. He would reply to my stories here and there. In the back of my mind, I thought, maybe he wants to be friends, we totally got along, and it's not like something happened that we hated each other. This went on for weeks...until Thanksgiving. Where he went from DMs to a text, wishing me a great day with my family in a very thoughtful message. Again, not trying to read too much into this but now the wheels were turning, hmmm, does he like me?! Within the next week he had reached out again asking if I had checked out to any of these restaurants doing outdoor dining, since remember, it's still 2020 and that was the only option. I had not, I was focusing on myself, my new business venture, and staying focused. He asked me if I wanted to try one of them together!!!! I'm not kidding when I leaped out of my chair, did a happy dance, and said YES! We ended up having an 8 hour, 3 different restaurant first date. Followed up by 3 more dates that week and to be honest, the rest is history! So I like to say, I may have pursued him first, but he sealed the deal in the end. And yes, he remained 'John SWAG' in my phone until a few months into us dating ;)

During the Summer of 2019, I started a new job with every intention of staying focused on training for my new role. I was quickly captivated by one of the employees at the office and tried my best to resist any form of temptation. She did not hold back and subtly asked me out on a date. As you can imagine, her name was Christina Cervantes. I finally caved and during the month of February 2020, we went on a couple dates. Before we knew it, office drama ensued and COVID lockdowns came into full effect so things didn’t progress any further at that point. Fast forward a few months later, I decided to pursue her and invite her out for a socially distanced midafternoon cocktail. At the time, we were forced to be outside and had no expectations as to where the day might take us. As minutes turned into hours, daytime turned into nighttime, we quickly found ourselves taking a long walk through Lincoln Park. At that moment, we were truly getting to know each other. I then realized that I should have pursued her all along and ignore all the outside noise because of how special she is. One day led to another and before we knew it, we began dating. The rest is history, and I could not have gotten more lucky to have Christina Marie Cervantes in my life.