Tarik and Kate are a perfect match. In some ways, we’re the same person - hard working, ambitious, close with our families. In other ways, total opposites, like Tarik’s ability to keep up with seemingly 100+ close friends vs. Kate’s devoted friendship to a chosen few. After growing up in Scituate, Kate went to Georgetown, spent a few years in NY, got her MBA at Darden, and finally came back to Boston to work at Wayfair. Tarik grew up just outside of Boston in Watertown, stayed local for college at Northeastern, and has worked in Finance in Boston ever since, now at Citi. As two avid “texters” who met on the dating app Hinge, we thought it was fitting to tell our love story by sharing real text messages we sent over the course of our relationship: 3/17/21 7:28pm Tarik: I’m right inside the doors when ya get here. The night of our first date arrived. We were meeting at Barcelona, a tapas restaurant with an impressive charcuterie selection, in the South End just blocks from where we live now. Tarik, the discerning foodie and Type A planner, selected the location to impress Kate, knowing her high expectations for meat & cheese. Always punctual, Tarik sent this courtesy text 2min before our 7:30 date. Kate, unfortunately, was not as courteous. She received the text while rushing to the date, cutting it close to her target 5-min-late arrival, while texting her friend Shannon to do a quick Google search (“not seeing any criminal record” Shannon luckily reported). Kate arrived at what she thought was Barcelona. She peered inside and saw a thin, bald man sitting alone, clearly waiting for his own Hinge date. Hmm. I swore Tarik looked a little more tan and built in his dating profile. Didn’t he have a full head of hair? The man gave her a nervous wave. As Kate started to wave back, she noticed the sign “Butcher Shop”. She was at the wrong restaurant. She took off running to the next block to arrive at Barcelona, and was relieved to find Tarik’s familiar face under a mask (COVID era romance). We went on to have the perfect first date - easy conversation, discovering shared values, and phenomenal Manchego. 5/23/21 7:38pm Kate: Yeah let’s get a pic in Portland Kate premeditates taking their first photo together as a couple before their first weekend getaway to Portland, ME, one of Kate’s favorite places. Tarik had a mission for the trip: ask Kate to be his girlfriend. Kate had her own mission, take their first photo together to debut the relationship on social media. The weekend turned out to be unseasonably cold and rainy, so they never got their photo. But it was for the best, because they spent the day brewery-hopping, and with the help of an Allagash pint (and some hyping up from his Watertown group chat), Tarik asked Kate and she accepted his BF/GF proposal. 6/30/22 6:53pm Kate: I’m hungry Tarik: I was nervous before flight thinking I better get back safely for a monumentous life event Kate: I’m starving The night before Tarik proposed, he had just landed at Logan Airport from a business trip, and was eager to get back to execute his well-planned proposal. Kate was apparently ready for dinner. Kate knew the proposal was coming, since we had booked the venue 3 months prior (have we mentioned we are Type A planners yet?), but she didn’t know the specifics. The next morning, we got in the car, Kate assuming her position in the passenger seat, blissfully unaware of their destination nor taking note of obvious signs or monuments along the way to clue her into their destination. To Kate’s surprise, they pulled into World’s End, a park in Hingham with views of Boston, where they’d been on a previous date. Tarik led the way, walking along the tree-lined path until we found an opening to a sliver of beach, overlooking sailboats taking advantage of the warm, windy day. Tarik laid down a blanket, unloaded a full charcuterie board (ft. Kates fav Manchego), mixed up two refreshing Aperol Spritz’s, and got down on one knee.