I will let my bride to be share the little details I miss, but I remember it like it was yesterday. My family had just come back from vacation from Mexico and my cousin H.B. and his now wife Alyssa, were throwing a housewarming party to celebrate their new home. I had arrived at their house and there were people hanging out by the pool and some inside as well. I was hanging out by the bar in the basement and I noticed a flood of Honeywell people trickling down the stairs which baffled me because I didn’t know they knew all these people. So not really paying that close attention, one person in particular came down the stairs caught my attention, and said “Who wants to take a shot of tequila?”. I was like who the hell is that??? Of course this was Kat! She came around and gave everyone shots to liven the party up because the vibe was a bit low. After chatting with her a bit, I found out she could play spades and that’s when the trash talking began and you can say the start of our journey. One thing about me, I’m super competitive and Kat was pushing all the right buttons so I had to get on the table to shut her up. We started off playing against each other and by some chance of luck, her and her partner managed to blind 6 their way back and win the game. So of course, to this day she will never let me hear the end of it. As the night went on we ended up playing as partners because she refused to give me a rematch. She also told me she didn’t just want me to be her partner, but that she wanted “to be chosen” otherwise she wasn’t going to play. We actually won several games of spades as partners and little did I know in that moment, I had a new spades partner for life. It’s safe to say, I’ve been choosing her every day since!

We met at his cousin HB's housewarming party with his now wife Alyssa. But I actually wasn't supposed to be at the housewarming as I didn't even know anything about it until an hour beforehand. I was at brunch celebrating a coworker's (George Harper The Third as he introduces himself) accomplishment on a new job and moving back home to St. Louis. While at the brunch, George asked me if I was going to the housewarming with the group afterwards. I told him I wasn't because I wasn't invited. He informed me that it was a mass invite through the Groupme app. At this point, I had just enough mimosas in me to want to continue the party. So I agreed to go for a little before the plans I had later that night. We stopped by the liquor store before the housewarming party to buy a "gift" so that we wouldn't show up empty handed. As I walked downstairs to where the party was, I realized it was a bit slower paced than I expected. So to spice things up a bit, I asked the party if they were ready to take a shot of tequila. One of the people who agreed to a shot was this cutie in a sleeveless shirt and a baseball cap. After the shot, I was ready to start whooping folks in Spades and asked HB if he had a deck of cards. This perked up the ears of the cutie in the hat in which he asked me "you know how to play Spades?!". I replied "I know how to beat you in Spades". The game was on after that. As we waited for the deck of cards and the Spades table, I found out that the cutie's name was Mike. I also found out that Mike was from the same city I'm from, Dallas (green flag). My girl Lisa Ray was my partner and Mike's friend Cameronn was his partner. After an extremelyyyyy close game, Lisa and I won (of course) and I will never let Mike live that down. At this point the housewarming was really turning into quite the party. That in combination of me flirting with Mike, made me reschedule my prior plans for the evening. The plans I had to reschedule was actually a date, needless to say that ended up never happening. The party finally ended somewhere around 1 or 2am. As everyone was leaving the house, I was wondering whether or not Mike was going to ask me for my number. When he told me he was going to walk me to my car, I just knew I had it in the bag. He walked me to my car, told me to get home safe and walked off. I was so dumbfounded because I know I wasn't delusional in the vibes that I got from him. So I started my car and decided to drive past where his car was parked to give him another chance to ask me for my number. I rolled down my window and told him good night. He told me good night and got into his car. Again, dumbfounded. He rolled down his window and told me to get home safely. I then decided to throw him a bone one last time and said "well how are you going to make sure I make it home safely?!". Mike replied "well I'll just text you". I replied "well how are you going to do that if you don't have my number?!". He finally got the hint that was no longer a hint, realized the blessing sitting in front of him (me, of course lol) and decided to ask me for my number. When I made it back safely, I decided to call to let him know that I made it home. That conversation ended up lasting a few hours. The phone conversation the following night ended up lasting around 5ish hours. And the rest is history.