“We’re getting married!”

His version: Prior to meeting Katie, my best friend Kaleigh had been telling me for a couple of months about this beautiful blonde she wanted to introduce me to. At first, I was hesitant, which made me miss Katie's birthday in Feb, then Kaleigh said she'd invited Katie to her birthday party in March, which made me very nervous. As Kaleigh's party got closer, I got increasingly worried about how our introduction might go, but I told myself it'd be a low-stress event to meet someone new, and if it didn't work out, then oh well. As it turns out, Katie got sick and had to miss Kaleigh's birthday, which made me think it wasn't meant to be... Cut to the morning of April 10th, and it started as any other day, breakfast in the office, and then some morning meetings. Between meetings, my boss told me they were going to check out the event in the conference room next door. I hadn't seen this event before, so I said that I'd meet them in there to check it out after going to the bathroom. As I walked down to the bathroom, I noticed the back of a blonde woman's head who was working in the conference room, and knew that she was Katie (there are no other blonde women working in her office lol). I told myself that if she was still there when I came back up, I'd introduce myself and see what happens. Sure enough, when I came back up, my boss was talking to her, and I knew I had an easy in. I walked up, said hello to my boss, and met Katie for the first time. The conversation was so easy (I didn't stumble over my words, surprisingly), and she was even more beautiful in person than any picture could ever capture. After talking for a while and hearing her laugh, I knew I wanted to get to know her more. So after I left the room, I immediately texted Kaleigh to tell her I met Katie, and said that I'd like to try seeing her again. Apparently, Katie felt the same, so Kaleigh set up a double date for us that following weekend (which made me insanely nervous because I felt like that moved so fast!). Her version: People who schedule events to start at 7:00 should not be allowed to plan things. I was tired, cranky, and 80% sure that I forgot to put on deodorant. But I had to smile through it all because it was only day 10 of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, and I had at least 7 more events to get through. Luckily, my job was reasonably easy that day; I just had to smile and explain the art exhibit. “What Were You Wearing” is an internationally hosted art exhibit that challenges victim-blaming by showing the ordinary clothing that survivors of sexual assault wore during the assault. Since it isn’t the easiest topic to discuss or see, I did not have many people wanting to talk. However, one of the First Shirts that I have been working with saw me and decided to look around and chat. After a few minutes of talking with the First Shirt, this cute guy with glasses comes up to us to say “hi” to the First Shirt. It turns out that he works in the First Shirt office. However, as we quickly learn, the cute guy and I share a mutual friend, Kaleigh. I truly don’t know how long we talked for. But eventually, the cute guy goes back to work. When it was time to start cleaning up the exhibit, I volunteered to put away the chairs. I knew that I would struggle to carry them and that I could ask the cute guy for help, and then we could talk more. He helped me carry all of the chairs (aka he carries everything while I yap). I prayed he couldn’t see how hard I was blushing; I really put my concealer to work. Once we parted ways, I immediately texted Kaleigh and told her that I had met her cute friend, and I wanted to see him again. She came up with the idea for a double brunch date that Sunday in Fells Point. I immediately said yes and started planning my outfits. And after our 24-hour first date, the rest is our story.