Swiping through Hinge one day, swipe after swipe, I came across a woman wearing a white shirt and jeans. She was beautiful, but what stood out to me most was her smile. It completely stopped me in my tracks. In the photo, it looked like she was out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t stop looking at it. So, I decided to message her: “You look like the kind of girl I would’ve shared my cookies with in kindergarten 😏.” Was it original? Had I maybe used that line before? Possibly. But this time, I truly meant it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have just shared my cookies with her. I probably would’ve given her the whole pack. We kept talking on Hinge, and I quickly realized how much I enjoyed our conversations. She gave thoughtful responses, asked genuine questions, and seemed truly interested in getting to know me. I felt the same way about her. After what felt like only a few days, she suggested we meet for dinner after work. I remember being excited because I had been planning to ask her out already, and she beat me to it. I suggested Texas Roadhouse, and that’s where we had our first date. I still remember seeing her walk up to the door. She was so pretty that I was honestly a little intimidated at first. We met at the entrance, walked inside together, and asked for a “table for two.” But the second we started talking and I saw her smile in person, I immediately felt comfortable. We sat there talking for hours, completely losing track of time. We heard the Texas Roadhouse birthday song and line dance at least three or four times while we were there. Around 9:00 or 9:30, we paid our tab, and Jonelle offered to buy me a drink at the bar. Before we knew it, the restaurant was closing, and we were the only people left there. That night felt easy. Natural. Like we could’ve stayed there talking forever.

The prompt that got me was, “You look like the kind of girl I would have shared my cookies with in kindergarten 🍪” I laughed so hard at that because honestly… who falls for a line like that? Apparently, me. Two days later, we decided to meet in person at Texas Roadhouse. What I thought would be a quick one-hour date somehow turned into five. We stayed until they closed the restaurant and didn’t even realize it. From our very first interaction, I was captivated by Terry’s calm demeanor and the subtle things about him, the way he opened my door, the confidence in his voice when he spoke, and how intensely he listened when we talked. Terry made me nervous, but somehow calm enough not to run. That night, I felt seen and heard. There were no promises, expectations, or thoughts about what came next, but I knew that night that was exactly where I wanted to be. Our actual first date completely blew me away. Of course, Terry asked all the right questions beforehand about the things I liked, but I’m honestly not a very picky girl. We started with dinner and then headed to our first planned spot, except it was too busy. And guess what? This man had options. We smoothly moved right along to plan B like he had been preparing for this date his entire life. But honestly, what shocked me the most was the effort. Terry had sent me an actual email invitation for the date beforehand, complete with the time, location, parking details, attire suggestions, and even the menu so I could look at it in advance. At that point, I genuinely started wondering where this man came from. Oh! Months later, I asked Terry if the cookie line was originally meant just for me. Naturally, he said yes. Come to find out later… absolutely not. To this day, I still tease him about it, and honestly, he may spend forever making it up to me 🤍.