It all started on August 6th 2018 when Christine closed on her house and moved into her new home on Parandor Place. Two months later, on October 16th of 2018, Daniel came with his realtor to view the house directly across the street. Christine was out walking Dixie and went over to say hi. First introducing herself to Daniel’s parents, she quickly found out that Daniel was the interested buyer and NOT his parents. At that point, Christine was very excited to potentially have a new neighbor who was also young professional. She was also caught saying to her friend Jill, “I met the new neighbor. Those blue eyes of his will be the death of me!” Daniel moved in a month later on November 19th and they, along with the next door neighbor Eric, became instant friends! Their friendship continued to grow steadily over the next few years. During such time, Daniel and Christine grew closer over football Sundays, working from home, and meals with the fellow neighbors of Parandor Place. Daniel and Christine had both liked each other for a good while but didn’t act on it because they were both “sure that s/he isn’t into me.” Daniel did ask Christine out at one point but then Covid hit with the massive shutdown the following week so the date didn’t come to fruition. Instead, they started to spend an exhorbitant amount of time hanging out in their front yards. Months later, the Holiday Season was arriving. It was at this time that Daniel proclaimed that he HATED CHRISTMAS. Christine’s response to this claim was, “challenge accepted.” Over the next two months, Christine and Daniel went to as many local Christmas themed events as they could find.

Just before Christmas, they had attended many events and Christmas day was quickly approaching. The two knew that Christine would be leaving on a road trip for two weeks to visit her mom in New York. The day she left both Christine and Daniel were very sad to say goodbye to each other but neither admitted it. They hugged, we think that was for the first time, and Christine headed to New York. Christine didn’t get even as far as South Carolina without texting Daniel and complaining about it being cold. Daniel then started asking about how cold it was and if he should go ahead and send anything to help with the cold. Christine then jokingly said to send a “cozy kit.” A few days later when Christine had arrived in New York an Amazon package had also arrived and it was a cozy kit from Daniel. This included a blanket which is still her favorite blanket to this day. Christine returned from New York and was greeted by Daniel in the driveway. They had kept in touch via text throughout the entire trip and continued to text to the very moment Christine pulled in the driveway after she had had some scary car trouble in Orlando. Daniel was right there waiting for her as her car pulled up on December 30th. The next night, which was New Year’s Eve, Christine, Daniel, Eric, and their two friends, Luke and JT, met in Christine’s front yard to try to make it to midnight. They did not… Friends dispersed early and left Christine and Daniel to watch the bonfire until midnight. During this time, Christine and Daniel got to talking a bit more about what they wanted in a relationship, while still not knowing that the other had feelings for them.

On January 2, Daniel finally asked Christine out for the second time and they had made plans to play video games and hang out that night. He then cancelled his plans to help a coworker move into a new place. Frustrated and upset, Christine stayed home that night…probably sulking. Okay, definitely sulking. That night, Daniel had canceled his plans and knew he messed up. He decided to bake in order to make it up to Christine but realized he was missing some key ingredients. So Daniel texted Christine asking for sugar, butter, and milk. She told him to come over for the ingredients, not knowing they were for him to bake for her, and he showed up at the door to a very much sulking Christine. That night, turned into a long evening of wonderful and honest conversations in which they finally realized that the feelings were mutual between the two of them. After two hours of impactful conversation, they decided to explore being in a relationship together. It went well. They’re now getting married. To be continued...