We’re Married!! Let’s Party!!

I had just moved to San Diego and did not know many people in the area. I downloaded Hinge, a dating app where I reluctantly entered in my information and pictures to see if I could meet anyone in my new city. If you have never used a dating app this is how it works. Essentially, you’re judging people on their looks and small prompted text responses to certain questions that Hinge asks. I came across a good looking guy named Cliff, who’s profile stated, “can change a tire and start a fire”as well as “worlds best big spoon”. Thinking that I needed those things in my life I immediately liked his profile. It was about a day or so before Cliff responded. I was on a flight to San Fransico for work for about 4 days. We spoke the full 4 days I was there non stop. We spoke about his job, being a SEAL. He had said that he was in the teams. Being from Orange County I had no idea what that meant, which Cliff loved. For a while there I thought he was a professional baseball player or something sports related. We spoke about adding each other on Instagram to get a deeper view into each others lives. Cliff had then stopped me saying, “I need to tell you something, I’m a single father of a 13 year old”. Eventually, I came to know cliff as an amazing dad who would do anything for his child to succeed and would be there every step of the way. I finally returned from San Francisco, de shovled and exhausted as I normally do from any work trip. Cliff had asked me, “do you want a tall drink of water to pick you up from the airport”? I was not very used to his Texan comments just yet since we still had not met in person. I did not want him to meet me for the first time after traveling and working all day, so I denied his sweet offer. It was Halloween night. I had no plans except to relax after a long travel day. We continued to speak and then finally said, “what are we doing, let’s just meet in person”. By this time it was midnight. We met at a speak easy down town called False Idol. Cliff had mentioned let’s keep the attire causal. If you knew me back in 2018 you knew that meant 6 inch heels, straight blonde hair and a full face of makeup. I had arrived early. Cliff tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around to a tall, tan man in causal clothing with a nice smile and a deep Texas accent. We went into the speak easy where I conducted my formal interview of Cliff. I don’t love awkward silences so I knew I needed to keep the pace and took it upon myself to do so, which cliff took as a full on interview. After drinks I told Cliff I was going to walk home since I lived downtown. Cliff immediately said no, “I’m walking you home”. 7 blocks later we arrived, we hugged goodnight and didn’t speak for about 1-2 weeks. I had a work function one night where I probably drank a few glasses of wine to build up the courage to text cliff. He was very happy that I texted him and asked me if I wanted to come over to watch a movie after my work function. He made sure to mention that the attire should actually be causal this time. I took the advice and came over in Lulu lemon attire, if you know me now you know this is my uniform of daily life. We went to Nicky Rottens in Coronado, chatted and got to know each other more on a personal level. We then stopped by the Central Liquor store in Coronado to grab some White Claws for the movie. Something about laying low, dressed in sweats and good conversation really solidified it all. We had our first kiss and the rest is history!