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Jordan and Leo first met in November 2017, when they traveled to Chicago as part of a class of incoming interns for the following summer. After dinner at Café Ba-Ba-Reeba, the group took a trolley tour of Chicago. At some point on the trolley, Leo approached Jordan to introduce himself. Despite Leo's charisma, Jordan assumed he was trying to walk past her and greeted him with "Oh are you trying to get a beer? It's in the back." Leo was not, in fact, trying to get a beer. So began Leo's efforts to seem cool for his co-workers.

Jordan and Leo's internship kicked off the next summer, full of scheduled activities and limited working responsibilities. After one such event, a Cubs vs. Twins game on a Wrigley rooftop, Leo overheard another co-worker telling Jordan "I'm sorry--I actually can't make it to the Harry Styles concert…" Leo was well aware that Harry would be in town soon, and was conveniently free, so he helpfully invited himself. Jordan reluctantly allowed it, and Leo blew Jordan away with his suspiciously complete knowledge of Harry's songs. The musical peak of Leo's summer was also the peak of 1:1 time between Jordan and Leo, but they were friends throughout and both accepted offers to return to their company following their senior years of college.

Jordan and Leo moved back to Chicago full-time in the fall of 2019 to start work. Over the first few months, they gradually became better friends, including going to dinner together with Jordan's mom (and Leo's roommate--thank you Neil!). In early March 2020, Jordan and Leo biked together to the famous ice cream shop Margie's Candies. Jordan did not yet know of Leo's aversion to biking, so this was not seen as suspicious. A week later, Jordan and Leo both returned home to their families to wait out COVID.

With everyone bored and stranded at home, Leo, Jordan, and their co-worker (and now officiant) Nick set up a recurring Zoom invite to hang out virtually most weeknights. Nick turned out to be very busy at work, so this turned into pretty frequent Jordan/Leo only Zoom calls. Jordan eventually decided to return to Chicago in July, and Leo coincidentally chose to go back on the same day.

Back in Chicago, Jordan and Leo started spending increasing amounts of time together. This included watching Love Island (always seated at opposite ends of the couch) and renting a car many weekends to drive to various suburbs to play tennis and eat bagels, cookies, and Culver's. Leo also introduced Jordan to pickleball during this time. Those not reading closely might say "Oh, those are fun date activities," but to be clear, none of these were dates, and each ended with a "see ya." As it turns out, both Jordan and Leo were interested in these being dates. Unfortunately, Leo's sources tasked with assessing Jordan's interest had come back with a clear answer--"Not interested! I guess she just likes tennis!" In mid-February, though, Jordan sent Leo an ambiguous text suggesting a sliver of interest. Leo leapt at the opportunity, sending an emotional text and asking to talk on the phone. Jordan informed Leo she was watching a movie (at home, with full pausing abilities) and would call him after. After an extremely [stressful / cinematic] 90 minutes, they talked on the phone and agreed to "give it a shot."

Giving it a shot worked out well! About a month later, they visited Jordan's hometown of Newport Beach. Leo got to experience a boat ride in perfect weather along with Stella Jean's Ube Toffee ice cream, giving him new appreciation for Jordan's year-round love for Chicago In the summer, they visited Minneapolis for their first appearance in the annual pickleball tournament. Leo's family assured Jordan that, despite its reputation, the weekend's 70-degree sunny weather could be expected on all visits to Minneapolis. Jordan handled herself very well both on the court and off, expertly navigating the never-ending stream of Leo's relatives and high school friends present at the tournament. While their skills leave something to be desired, pickleball has become one of Jordan and Leo's favorite activities, returning to Minneapolis for the tournament every year and spending many weekends in Chicago playing at Horner and McFetridge parks. I prefer to lead by talking about something physically active, because Jordan and Leo's other primary activity is eating in Chicago restaurants. They maintain a list of Chicago restaurants to try across the city, and find themselves returning to some of their favorite spots over and over--some of these can be found on the "Things To Do" tab of this website! In addition to anywhere that serves smashburgers and good pizza, Jordan and Leo are particularly fond of restaurants from the Hogsalt Group, including Au Cheval, Trivoli Tavern, Bavette's, and Armitage Ale House, where they first encountered the incredible Sticky Date Cake. They're not opposed to other sweet items as well, and highly recommend Lickity Split's frozen custard. After ~4 years at their jobs, Jordan and Leo took some time off to attend business school together at Northwestern. They took advantage of this time, traveling to Slovenia, Banff, Japan, Portugal, and achieving Leo's lifelong dream of visiting NBA Summer League and the Sphere in Las Vegas. Following school, they moved to their current apartment in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood, which they love for its proximity to their friends, the Blue Line, and an abundance of $12 dinner options (none better than Onions & Cilantro). In January, two of their friends invited Jordan and Leo to dinner outside their $12 bubble at Trivoli Tavern. While Jordan wasn't feeling her best that day, the allure of the Sticky Date Cake was enough to keep them on schedule. The four-person dinner invitation turned out to be a ruse, as Jordan learned when Leo started acting weird outside the restaurant--walking slowly, looking at his phone, and eventually saying "Stand here" before getting down on one knee and proposing. Jordan said yes and the happy couple enjoyed a perfect meal while beginning to discuss crazy ideas like "Do you think there would be time to do a wedding this year?"