We met when I started as a waitress at the Country Club, a local golf course here in Meadville. Travis was the head chef at the club at the time and was quiet, kind and very supportive. By winter we were walking into my first Christmas party season and terrified of dropping a tray he came over to demonstrate how to properly carry a very large and heavy tray. I remember being filled with courage. From that point on we seemed to tackle many things with eachothers support while working together. We navigated large parties and dining functions like they were an everyday occurrence. I had asked Travis out for drinks a handful of nights after work all except two he had declined. On December 19th, the night before my birthday he aggreed to meet a handful of our coworkers out at the bar to celebrate my birthday and his last day of work at the club. That same night was our first kiss and the beginning of a love story the universe seemed to have had planned for us all along.

I was in the front office of The Country Club during her first interview; I remember thinking to myself how beautiful she was. But then I met her on her first day of work. She came in running late and flustered, she placed her stuff on the floor in the back kitchen staff lockers. I remember thinking how cute it was that she didn’t mind leaving her stuff on the floor and getting about her work. After that I was just smitten by her, every day we were together. I tried to completely ignore her as a result and it drove her crazy. I didnt want to give into it though because she was easily the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met and all of the feelings I had seemed too good to be true. One night at the end of my shift I slyly managed to get my number to her by disguising it by asking her to give it to her brother, Max, one of my best friends that I had met in high school but we had lost touch with after moving to Alaska. Weeks later I had made chocolate strawberries one night for a party and with full intention of giving them to the entire staff- I managed to only bring them out to her at the bar, completely forgot about the rest of the staff. December 19th was my last day of work at the club and I agreed to go out to celebrate with our coworkers. She was so beautiful I couldn’t even look at her. Our first kiss was that night at her friend’s apartment