Austin and Monica met while working together at Cincinnati Children's Hospital's ADHD Summer Treatment Program (STP). They become instant friends and bonded over the long days of work, including intense games of dodgeball every Friday (Monica's team beat Austin's overall, just FYI). During that summer they spent more time together hanging with groups of STP friends, watching The Office and Game of Thrones, and exploring Cincinnati. This included going on some dates that Monica didn't know were actually dates, like spending the day at Kings Island Amusement Park. At the end of the summer they made their relationship official and went on their first official date to dinner and a play in downtown Cincinnati!

At the end of the summer 2018, Austin moved to St. Louis, MO to start grad school. At this point, Austin and Monica knew that their relationship was something special and so decided to try long distance while Monica finished undergrad in Cincinnati. They continued doing long distance when Monica moved to Carbondale, IL to start grad school. When Monica was in Carbondale and Austin was in St. Louis they were only two hours apart, so spent most weekends together and got to know each other's friends and lives! In 2022, Austin moved to Austin, TX for his residency while Monica finished her last year of grad school in Carbondale, and the long-distance got a little bit longer. After his residency ended in 2023, Austin moved to Columbus for his post-doctoral fellowship, and at the same time, Monica moved to Cleveland for her residency. Only 2 hours apart again! As of July 2024, Monica and Austin now live together in Cincinnati after they both accepted jobs at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. In the same city at last!

Austin and Monica had talked about getting engaged and even looked at engagement rings together. But Austin had convinced Monica that the early summer of 2022 wasn't the right time to get engaged since he was about to move to Texas. So when their anniversary came around and they were visiting Cincinnati, Austin planned a dinner for Monica downtown and she didn't think anything of it. After dinner, Austin and Monica walked across the bridge to the other side of the river where they stood and admired the Cincinnati skyline. Note that it says "stood" because Monica asked if they could sit down on a bench and Austin said "no." Eventually, Austin turned to Monica and, as he would say, his mind went blank. All he could think to say was a quote from the "Scott's Tots" episode of The Office: "Do you have intuition? Do you know what's going to happen next?" At this point he got down on one knee, but didn't quite get to popping the question. Monica started saying "wait, oh my god, really??" and laughing uncontrollably, which made Austin start laughing uncontrollably. Neither of them really remember what happened next, but eventually Austin said "Well take the ring!" to which Monica replied "You haven't asked me yet!" Of course this made them both laugh even harder, so hard that Monica had to kneel down next to Austin. Eventually, they got it together, Austin asked the question, and Monica said YES. Then Austin pointed up a hill where they saw Monica's parents and friend, Janice. They had been watching the whole thing and Janice had been taking pictures! We then went to get drinks at a rooftop bar to celebrate. Monica got to hear all of the chaos that had gone on behind the scenes including having to completely reschedule the engagement because Monica's dad had been sick the week before (meaning that Austin's family and some friends weren't able to make it as they had planned originally), why Austin chose to propose on a Thursday, and so much more. The next day, Austin and Monica were helping out at the STP. They got to go back to where it all began and celebrate with friends and colleagues who had known them from the start!