Who would have thought? Not us in the slightest. Eric and I first met the summer of 2015 at a parish festival. "I just got my acne under control, got my drivers license and was feeling good." I, however, was dating his best friend at the time. Gavy was always around. We literally went to two proms, several holiday and birthday parties, bonfires, hockey games, football games. I've had a fantastic friend and family since we met. Eric and I always kept in touch after that relationship had ended. He was always there for me when I needed him. He went to my brother's hockey games even when I wasn't able to. Once he was in my life he was never a stranger. The summer before our senior year of college, during the pandemic, I regularly had her brother come lift with me at my apartment gym. Later that season, I ran into Gavy at IKEA. A couple days later, her brother (not-so-subtly) asked if I was single. I had asked Diego to ask Eric if he was single. Flash forward to September when we started talking more and more. We would snapchat and text constantly. Then finally Eric asked if I would like to grab lunch when I was home one weekend. I thought FINALLY. We were both so nervous at lunch! You could hear it in our voices and Eric kept running into things (that hasn't stopped since.) We spent the whole day together catching up and got dinner as well. We never had that awkward first dating phase. We already knew we loved each other. We had always been friends.