Emily’s POV: Like any self-respecting 24-year-old girl with zero luck in the wild, I downloaded Hinge. Because, you know, where else do you go when you’re tired of meeting “characters” (and I mean that in the roughest sense lol). After a few too many tragic encounters, I officially decided: men are trash. Done. Over it. Deleted. Fast-forward to a crisp November evening — I’m at family dinner with Riley and Alli Paysen. They were curious about this Hinge thing, so naturally I AirPlayed my phone to the TV. Suddenly, Alli goes, “Ooo look at that one — he seems nice! He’s a CPA and played basketball at UNI.” And I, being my pessimistic self, said, “Yeah right… he’s probably just another douchey basketball player.” But despite having my doubts, I finally messaged him back. For those who are curious, he responded to my prompt about The Office being my fav show. Enter: Lincoln. We started chatting and, I swear, the “Invisible String Theory” went straight to work: 1. Both of our parents have the exact same names — Jeffrey & Elizabeth (wild). 2. His cousin Jaren? Yeah, she was my coworker at Wright… and friend! 3. We literally lived a block from each other in West Des Moines. At this point, fate was practically screaming at me. So we hung out that Sunday night. Yes, I went straight to his house (looking back, I cannot believe I didn’t at least make him meet me in a public setting, but hey, I lived to tell the tale). I walked in the door, screamed “HI!!!” at the top of my lungs like the loud human I am, and somehow Lincoln didn’t run for the hills. Instead… he stuck around. Eden adores him. And me? Yeah… me too. The rest is history. Lincy is the best human for me. Lincolns POV: Like all great modern love stories, ours began on Hinge. I had decided to give Hinge another try but figured it would continue to be a waste of time because of my previous experiences and lack of responses. I stumbled across this cute looking gal who had an Office prompt and most importantly a picture with a dog on her profile, so I sent her a like and a money pickup line. Then…radio silence. A week or so later, Emily finally replied (Shoutout Riley and Alli Paysen)…she swears she didn’t have her notifications on. We go through the “get to know each other” phase that involved cringey flirtatious messages that have since been wiped from Hinge’s servers to never be seen again (thank goodness). We planned our first date at Blue Agave in Waukee, not because it seemed like a good first date spot but because I wanted to check it off my list of restaurants to try. In the midst of coordinating the date, we discovered we only live a block away so I decided, what the heck, if Emily’s free I should invite her over, so I did. I thought it would be a good idea to get the dreaded first meet and greet out of the way and dinner wouldn’t be as awkward. Emily without hesitation agreed. Next thing I know here comes barreling into my house the loudest but also the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. We hit it off right away discovering all these crazy connections we have and common interests. Somehow I was able to carry on a conversation that night and at dinner…or maybe Emily just talked the whole time. Either way we had an instant connection. Then came Eden. Naturally, our first interaction involved her jumping up on me and trying to lick my face. We quickly created a bond that sometimes makes Emily jealous and you could tell she was all in on me sticking around for the long haul. Emily and I (and Eden) started down this path from a like on Hinge and a “romantic evening” at Blue Agave and never looked back. It became clear fast that Emily was who I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with. Eden supported my decision as well.