Katherine and I met while working as travel nurses in a trauma-surgical ICU in Albuquerque, NM during the height of the covid pandemic. We worked many night shifts together but never seemed to connect until Katherine began working on day shift.  After giving Katherine report on my patients one morning, I checked my watch and noticed I had stayed late talking to her. This was highly unusual because I typically gave a fast report and raced home for breakfast and sleep. After that long conversation, I knew that I had a crush on Katherine and I did my best to talk to her every chance that I could! Lucky for me, this ICU assigned patients in very a unique way. The nurses were given the ability to choose their patients for the shift. On my walk into the nursing huddle, I would find out where Katherine had been stationed for the day. Then, I would deliberately choose her patients to get a few extra minutes just to talk to her, even when that meant opting for a busier shift with sicker patients. I eventually worked up the nerve to ask her and Wheeler to join me and our close friend Taylor on a hike. Soon after that, we had our first official date at Tia B’s Waffleria. A few months (and many dates) later, I asked Katherine to join me on my road trip home to Alabama. I included one stipulation: if she said yes to the road trip, then she would also be saying yes to being my girlfriend. In my mind, this was a foolproof plan. I also thought it was an extra suave way to ask her to be my girlfriend. Needless to say I was shocked when she effortlessly told me no! Thankfully she had a change of heart a couple days later, and we enjoyed the first of our many cross country road trips together. The two of us (and Wheeler) have been adventuring together ever since!