Jess and Kevin met while they were working together at The Proper Hotel in Austin, Texas. They had been working together for 6 months when Jess started lingering in Kevin’s bar, doing her end of the night paperwork while chatting with him and asking him a million questions about himself, and occasionally giving him a ride home. Timing was on their side because just about when Jess felt like her crush on Kevin was getting a little bit too big, an offer came to open up a new brunch restaurant in a new part of town. During the interview process she decided now was as good of a time as ever to break her “never date your coworkers” rule and they went on their first date to eat oysters and draw on the paper tablecloth of a local restaurant. After she left that job, they began dating long distance while she was training for her new job in Houston, driving back to Austin on her days off to visit Kevin. Eventually after that job’s holiday party in December 2023 Kevin asked Jess to be his girlfriend at Memorial Park in Houston. Soon after that, they fell in love on a trip to Disneyworld for Kevin’s birthday, with Jess meeting Kevin’s family for the first time. They moved in together in the next year in September 2024 and found a lot of joy in designing and nesting in their new apartment. They dreamed of buying a home and starting a family as they continued to work their hospitality jobs, taking day trips to San Antonio, Houston, nearby state parks and most importantly dancing through as many concerts as they could attend together. In August 2025, Kevin asked Jess to take a trip to Northern California to meet her family, and flawlessly pulled off proposing at Eagle Rock above Lake Tahoe, a place near and dear to her heart.