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December 12, 2021
Orange Beach, Alabama
#ChildersEverettlasting

Jillian & Melanie

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Melanie Childers

and

Jillian Everett

#ChildersEverettlasting

December 12, 2021

Orange Beach, Alabama

How We Met

Swiping Right

We met in the most millennial of ways, intimately….on tinder. Melanie immediately stole all of my attention by sending a sincere and charmingly quirky message, asking me out for drinks. What she didn’t know is this was only my third day on this app. I had just come out with my sexuality and was overwhelmed and very excited to talk to women, let alone, have DRINKS with them. I felt like the protagonist in my own indie coming-of-age film. Melanie suggested that we get drinks at this new Japanese Bar downtown (Shu Shop) and I could already feel the butterflies filling my stomach like a gasp of air in my lungs. What had I gotten myself into? I still remember seeing her for the first time. Her smile felt like dopamine and as she hugged me, her hair smelled sweet, like oranges, and I almost had a panic attack. I pretended to be on a “business call” for the first 5 minutes because she was so warm and beautiful and I had no idea what I wanted to say to impress her. How could I be that cool.... She eased my anxiety by leading me to an intimate spot in the crowded bar. We talked and laughed for 5 hours. Melanie felt like all the romance novels I’d pictured in my head. She was home personified. I didn’t want to leave. I took a bathroom break to collect myself and noticed the chalkboard wall in the bathroom. I wanted so badly to write something to remember this night, but I didn’t want to jinx what we had just started, so I didn’t. A few months later, Mel and I were at dinner and she asked me if I remembered the chalkboard wall in the bathroom on our first date. I smiled and reassured her that I could never forget. She said, “That night I wanted to write, ‘I’m going to marry this girl’ on the wall, but I didn’t want to jinx us, so I didn’t. But I really wish I had because I know I am.”

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