I first heard about Brad through our mutual friend, Lauren Bay, our Freshmen year at Washington State University. When we would hang out, she kept asking me “Have you met Bradley Johnston yet? You’d really like him.” Lauren was able to finally introduce us and Brad quickly became one of my best guy friends. We had classes together, group projects, the occasional date dash and even lived two houses away from each other senior year. Flash forward to after graduation. I moved to Portland, OR and Brad moved to Vancouver, WA where we continued to stay in touch. This began a new season of our relationship - the year of “date/not a date”. Where when we would hang out one of us would think it was a date, while the other would think it was just two friends hanging out… classic Brad and Lindsay, amirite? Then came June 2017. Brad and I had made plans to go bow and arrow shooting at Forest Park. Me, thinking it was not a date, drove to meet Brad at the park. Brad, thinking otherwise, drove to my apartment to pick me up. By the end of the day, I was looking at Brad as more than a friend and we began talking almost every day. Finally, in August of 2017, after six years of friendship, we were on a beach cabin trip with a group of friends in Pacific City, OR. The first night we were there, Brad asked me if I wanted to go on a walk on the beach with him. As we were walking, the conversation turned to 'us' and ended with Brad saying, “OK, from now on when we hang out, it’s a date, and I’ll pick you up.”